I know that i havent been updating this thing like i should be, i suppose that will change when i either stop having so much fun, or when lucy leaves, cos then i wont have anyone constant to talk to so i'll have to make internet fiends again... sigh.
and yes the last time i blogged i was entering china and should continue the story then but i wanted to pay hommage to a dear friend of mine who left this earth quite suddenly the other day. his name is Andy, he was diagnosed in Feb with terminal brain stem cancer. unsurprisingly he took it quite wll publically, who knows how he really felt. he was given 9 months to live, at 26 this must have been extremly hard to handle. yet andy took it with grace and even went so far as to comfort those upset for him on many occaison. since the cancer was in a part of his brain that has little vascular action, chemo wasnt an option. it was also imoperable. he underwent a serious bout of radiation which slowed downt the tumor growth but would never be able to stop it. brain stem cancer affects your speech, sight, balance and as time goes on most of your control over the smaller bodily functions you and i take for granted - ie breathing. after radiation the doctors were happy with the result and thought he had been given more time. they were wrong.
the last time i saw Andy was at Henley Rowing Regatta. the weather was beautiful, the pimms was plentiful, and he was full of the banter not associated with a sick person, but his glasses and cane gave him away. i loved that he was as comfortable chatting about the cancer seriously as he was taking the piss out of his crippled appearance.
Andy bumped his head not too long ago and became concussed, this along with the growth of the cancer put him in hospital. he died shortly afterwards and will be forever missed. i realise you never speak ill of the dead, regardless of how they lived - but andy was one of the better ones and deserves all the praise one can muster. i raise my glass to his memory and feel lucky to have met him. R.I.P
Monday, 24 August 2009
Friday, 7 August 2009
Leaving Russia :) - well hello mongolia
so the last time i left you i was a little drunk in irkutsk.. so the adventure continued. the lovely Julia gave us beds for the night for free which was sweet cos other than that i would have to spend about 10 hours in the train station in the long term lounge trying to get some sleep for god knows what price. so we tried to sleep but it just wasnt happening for me. so we set off at about 4am to the train station to make our train that would bring us to mongolia. the place was riddled with mossies and i think i killed about 5 of them in the half hour i was in the station. gross right! finally it was time to get on the train and meet our compartment buddies. this time it was 2 german boys, beautiful german boys as it turned out! they were florien and alex 2 law students head across russia through mongolia to their destinations, they both had semesters abroad in singpore and brisbane and were taking the long way to get there. at first they didnt say much, in fact i didnt think they had much english between them. but i was wrong, thank god, and they turned out to be a little fun. they were definitely used to the better things in travelling and this was their first time travelling less than first class. a little hilarious to be honest. we hit the border and then for 5 god forsaking hours we waiting... and nothing happened.. nothing. and the staff were not really forthcoming with the details on how long we would be there.. initially we were told 1 hour, but this was a lie! and since they had our passports there was nothing that we could really do to make the situation any better. to add insult to injury we had run out of roubles and the shop only accepted them. so no more wodka for us, and no way to pass the time. the boys bought some beers and were not exactly in the sharing mood. the ladies in the next compartment in the train offered us some food and boose and that made it a little better. finally it was time to get on the train and make the move to the mongolian border where we were to do the same thing again, or so we feared. but luckily the mongolians were mentally fast compared to the russians and we were out of there in minutes, well it was probably an hour but it felt like minutes. we stopped again in customs and out we popped looking for food and the ever popular alcohol.. ended up buying some random food from a lady and i think it was the most tasty thing we had ever tasted! turned out we were all headed for the same guesthouse, fancy that! so we all go out and were greeted by our driver who took us through the crazy traffic in ulan bataar to UB Guesthouse. this place was a hive of activity. people moving about the place even though it was only 8am! there were tours headed out to the steppe, the mongolian outback. and others coming bak from treks. we get settled in and then decided to go for a walk with the boys about the city. note to all lookin to travel to mongolia you only really need a day in the ciy to get around it, 2 at the most.. but we had loads of time. we hit the natural history museum and im not sure what we were expecting but it sure wasnt a random musty ol building with dinosaurs bones in it! there were plenty of other interesting things in the museam..not.but a p[ersonal favourite of mine was to see the random fish.. yawn! so the delish german guys and us found the nearest outdoor bar and got cracking in to the booze. what else is there to do in mongolia?! well... rain apparently! it started to rain a little..then alot.. then a hell of a lot! it was bucketing down in no time and with us cowering under an umberalla outside thoughtwe would do the prudent thing and make a break for it to the nearest bar.. indoor bar! so we sat out the rest of the afternoon and the evening downing the better part of a bottle of champers and bottle of mongolian finest wodka. we weretrashed! suddenly it became apparent why the guys were so young, they definitelywere really young and both taken with lady friends..awh :( it would have felt like cradle snatching anyway ;) so at the unearthly hour of 10pm!! we headedback to the hostel, and not a moment too soon, since on the door of the hostel there was a warning that it was not safe to be out at night after midnight!eeek! safe?! so we threw on a movie, x-men is awesome when drunk. we,well lucy put one of the german boys to bed, and then the other one disappeared... although we didnt notice this until the movie had ended.. priorities people!!! so yeah young alex disappeared..we went looking for him on the streets thinking maybe in his drunken state he had gotten lost/attacked/or run awaysomehow. butafter a while and some drunken stumbling we decidedthat he was a big boy and could take care of himself... and we also swore that we would not do that to each other EVER! off we trotted to bed with only fizzy water to stave off the inevitable hangover...
wasnt hungover at all the next day, might have been that i slept for the better part of 11 hours! mental. best way to avoid a hangover! so we were off on our next adventure to spend 3 days (well 2 and a half) out in the Steppe, the mongolian outback! we were dead excitedto meet the locals and do the native activities.. but when we got there we realised that this might not be the case when it came ot mongolia! basically we were dropped unceremonisly on the doorstep of the steppe and left there. we managed to figure out that lunch would be at 2pm and dinner at 8pm and that we could have meat or no meat, and that the meat would be cow..we hoped! but that was all.. we were supposed to have a pony ride that day 2hrs of it and then 2 hrs the next day...but after waiting around for the majority of the day we were told that the ponies (well horses but seriously i could probably carry mine) that they were tired from a long day and that we would have the 4 hrs the next day.. eek,my thighs wimpered at the idea! well that was a waste of a day! we managed one small walk upa hill and whittled away the hours trying to persuade giant ants that they did not need to be all over us... fun?! we did investigate a country club in search of some booze and a nearby camp. but they were not helpful at all and one of them wanted a crazy amount for a but then we were saved.. this guy called magic (well he was polish and spelt it differently than that but thats what it sounded like) he was all keen about climbing some rocks and seeing the sun set from the top of this mountain thing... i was up for it, lou not so much. but we both bravely went forward in our little converse and penny's best plimsols for an adventure.. thank god magic is a little bit of a parkranger cos it was a little, ok alot,dangerous. we first had to lift ourselves up a rock and lou backed out there and then cos she wasnt up for squeezing into tiny cracks in the rocks. but i soldiered on... we climbed across a gravel area that was seroiusly dangerous and the light was failing.. then we had to climb through a crack in the rock and slide on our bellies up the rock. it was awesome! when facebook is no longer banned i will upload the photos! so we got to the top of the rock after a bit of panting and funny photos.. and then the vertigo hit. it was immense, standing up there in the middle of nowhere. i watched the sun set over the mountains and just enjoyed conquering my fear of heights.. an extreme way of doing you might argue ;) after the sunhad set we headed back down through the crack in the rock and past the gravel area,.. i slipped and almost died, well not so dramatic butmagiccaught my foot as it was sliding along the gravel and planted it in an un natural angle behind me for some grip and we made it to our starting place. but then we explored some more... walked through wicked corridors in the rock and found a cave and came across an old camp fire, we decided there and then that we would have a wodka party the next night out there, weather forgiving and if it was allowed. we were staying in a natural park after all.... i came down the rock to find that the fire had been lit in our ger (felt tent) and it was toasty... yum! pity though during the night the heat disappeard and i woke shivering at 6am.. ah well not too bad! the next day was 100% better than the first. we hiked up a massive slope that was almost vertical at one stage and made it over the edge to the most wonderful view of sloping valleys. we headed on further still and climbed another high rock and i almost peed my pants at the idea of what i was doing, but magic wasnt having any of my fears and yanked me up on top of the rock!! aaaah that was a wierd feeling. we legged it back a safer way to be greeted with lunch.. it was the same food as the day before but arranged differently.. mainly salt, carrots, onions, cabbage and some form of meat.. yum! i tell you, if anyone wants to lose some weight then stay in a ger for a couple of days and do what the locals do. after lunch was the riding experience.. hilarious to be honest as the horse i was given was a midget! a total midget! i felt bad riding the poor thing. 2 of the group were thrown, and one fat finnish dude had a problem with his horse sitting down and preparing to role all the time.. yeah i dont think the poor animal was used to that sort of weight on its back!
that night we all set up a campfire on top of the rocks and partied like russians.. plenty of the bad wodka that the kids rode over to the shop for (and fleeced us in the process) there was the singing of the national anthems, thank god i know ours since lou hadnt a notion.. but i might have let the side down by getting a weensy bit too pished and then thinking i could get down the mountain without any flashlight! oops.. as you can imagine the trip back home to the hostel was not the greatest amount of fun i have ever had in a car, especially with the mongolian roads.. uncool! but i managed not to vom so i thought did quite ok. we spent the rest of our timein mongolia wondering why we had booked so muich time there.. there isnt a lot to see other than what we did. but on our last night we headed to a culteral mongolian evening and were amazing by what the locals can do.. if there was a show.. the world's got talent well the asians would whip the westerners asses! throat singing, crazy joint popping contortions you name it they did it, felt very inadequate after it though! headed to the required irish bar for one last bottle of chaampers to say goodbye to mongolia and were greated with some aussie minors who insisted in buying us all our drinks and carting us off to a club! there was a moment of panic when i realised i left lou in the cab with a random stranger but we all manged to get there together and started laying heavily into a bottle of whiskey the guys bought for us.. suspicious?? it was all fun and gmaes but when one of them proposed to me we made a hasty exit and were tucked up in our beds before anyone got into anything too dangerous! flew mongolian airlines into china... it was touch and go for a while but we got there in one piece only to start our next eadventure....stay tuned! x
wasnt hungover at all the next day, might have been that i slept for the better part of 11 hours! mental. best way to avoid a hangover! so we were off on our next adventure to spend 3 days (well 2 and a half) out in the Steppe, the mongolian outback! we were dead excitedto meet the locals and do the native activities.. but when we got there we realised that this might not be the case when it came ot mongolia! basically we were dropped unceremonisly on the doorstep of the steppe and left there. we managed to figure out that lunch would be at 2pm and dinner at 8pm and that we could have meat or no meat, and that the meat would be cow..we hoped! but that was all.. we were supposed to have a pony ride that day 2hrs of it and then 2 hrs the next day...but after waiting around for the majority of the day we were told that the ponies (well horses but seriously i could probably carry mine) that they were tired from a long day and that we would have the 4 hrs the next day.. eek,my thighs wimpered at the idea! well that was a waste of a day! we managed one small walk upa hill and whittled away the hours trying to persuade giant ants that they did not need to be all over us... fun?! we did investigate a country club in search of some booze and a nearby camp. but they were not helpful at all and one of them wanted a crazy amount for a but then we were saved.. this guy called magic (well he was polish and spelt it differently than that but thats what it sounded like) he was all keen about climbing some rocks and seeing the sun set from the top of this mountain thing... i was up for it, lou not so much. but we both bravely went forward in our little converse and penny's best plimsols for an adventure.. thank god magic is a little bit of a parkranger cos it was a little, ok alot,dangerous. we first had to lift ourselves up a rock and lou backed out there and then cos she wasnt up for squeezing into tiny cracks in the rocks. but i soldiered on... we climbed across a gravel area that was seroiusly dangerous and the light was failing.. then we had to climb through a crack in the rock and slide on our bellies up the rock. it was awesome! when facebook is no longer banned i will upload the photos! so we got to the top of the rock after a bit of panting and funny photos.. and then the vertigo hit. it was immense, standing up there in the middle of nowhere. i watched the sun set over the mountains and just enjoyed conquering my fear of heights.. an extreme way of doing you might argue ;) after the sunhad set we headed back down through the crack in the rock and past the gravel area,.. i slipped and almost died, well not so dramatic butmagiccaught my foot as it was sliding along the gravel and planted it in an un natural angle behind me for some grip and we made it to our starting place. but then we explored some more... walked through wicked corridors in the rock and found a cave and came across an old camp fire, we decided there and then that we would have a wodka party the next night out there, weather forgiving and if it was allowed. we were staying in a natural park after all.... i came down the rock to find that the fire had been lit in our ger (felt tent) and it was toasty... yum! pity though during the night the heat disappeard and i woke shivering at 6am.. ah well not too bad! the next day was 100% better than the first. we hiked up a massive slope that was almost vertical at one stage and made it over the edge to the most wonderful view of sloping valleys. we headed on further still and climbed another high rock and i almost peed my pants at the idea of what i was doing, but magic wasnt having any of my fears and yanked me up on top of the rock!! aaaah that was a wierd feeling. we legged it back a safer way to be greeted with lunch.. it was the same food as the day before but arranged differently.. mainly salt, carrots, onions, cabbage and some form of meat.. yum! i tell you, if anyone wants to lose some weight then stay in a ger for a couple of days and do what the locals do. after lunch was the riding experience.. hilarious to be honest as the horse i was given was a midget! a total midget! i felt bad riding the poor thing. 2 of the group were thrown, and one fat finnish dude had a problem with his horse sitting down and preparing to role all the time.. yeah i dont think the poor animal was used to that sort of weight on its back!
that night we all set up a campfire on top of the rocks and partied like russians.. plenty of the bad wodka that the kids rode over to the shop for (and fleeced us in the process) there was the singing of the national anthems, thank god i know ours since lou hadnt a notion.. but i might have let the side down by getting a weensy bit too pished and then thinking i could get down the mountain without any flashlight! oops.. as you can imagine the trip back home to the hostel was not the greatest amount of fun i have ever had in a car, especially with the mongolian roads.. uncool! but i managed not to vom so i thought did quite ok. we spent the rest of our timein mongolia wondering why we had booked so muich time there.. there isnt a lot to see other than what we did. but on our last night we headed to a culteral mongolian evening and were amazing by what the locals can do.. if there was a show.. the world's got talent well the asians would whip the westerners asses! throat singing, crazy joint popping contortions you name it they did it, felt very inadequate after it though! headed to the required irish bar for one last bottle of chaampers to say goodbye to mongolia and were greated with some aussie minors who insisted in buying us all our drinks and carting us off to a club! there was a moment of panic when i realised i left lou in the cab with a random stranger but we all manged to get there together and started laying heavily into a bottle of whiskey the guys bought for us.. suspicious?? it was all fun and gmaes but when one of them proposed to me we made a hasty exit and were tucked up in our beds before anyone got into anything too dangerous! flew mongolian airlines into china... it was touch and go for a while but we got there in one piece only to start our next eadventure....stay tuned! x
Saturday, 18 July 2009
Russia - Petersburg, Moscow...and the train!
Hey! so thought it was about time that i updated this thing.. i have been far too busy trying to cross the language and culture barrier here with Lucy in Russia until now.. on my 24th birthday, such a party animal, im blogging.
right so where to start... probably back in London for the Henley Royal Regatta that the ladies and I attended at the beginning of the month, jaysus it seems like years ago! so we headed over on some serious cheap ryanair flights, like a tenner each but it was to gatwick and we thought nothing of the geography of the whole thing, henley is WAY closer to heathrow, we are idiots! but managed to sort out our star car, the honda jazz and make it through rush hour on the M25 an get to Henley. the weather was out of this world, we intended on camping but had brought nothin but Mr Murphy and Mr Minors galliantly helped out so we didnt have any issues there, god i love playing the female card sometimes! didnt see too much rowing, was busy checking out the ridiculous blazers that all the rowers wear when off the boat, proper puky colours, there was plenty of Pimms consumed, amourous words exchanged and crap food eating.. basically major fun and im intending on making it an annual event! might even stump up for tickets to the posh enclosure next year... maybe, might just end up on the river bank having too much fun with all the rest of the common people!
so then on to tallinn... we were meant to fly bitch assed easrly in the morning so i managed to make my way accross london town at 3 am with my trusty co pilots fanny and lucy helping me with the written instructions (no sat nav for us!)made it with plenty of time to spare too... ut then disaster struck and our plan was delayed for about 4 hours.. damn easy jet! :( luckily i slept for most of it in the airport and it wasnt too long till we were in the sky on our way on our mental russian adventure! Tallin is BEAUTIFUL! its like a little piece of real disney.. Lucy and i stayed in some random hostel that was really comfy and had under floor heating.. well posh! booked our bus o Petersburg easy enough and were off the next night with some english guys from the hostel. we had all bought the delux bus ticket... nothing much delux about it to be honest.. but for an over night bus across into Russia it was grand enough. stopping at the border and going through customs... was not, what a waste of time!but with the english boys beside us it wasnt too annoying. wish i could remember both names, but Nick.. hope you are safe somewhere in eastern europe!
we were uncremoniously dumped in some random place at 6.30 in the morning in the middle of the gross part of petersburg the next morning... none of us had any russian, and the ATM didnt seem to like my card.. uh oh! but a giant Info board with a map of the city came to our rescue.. with out any directions from the hostel people we made it to the Cuban Hostel off Nevkksy Prospect (main street).. a minor miracle in itself... but the place looked well dodge, we were buzzed in and imagine a scene from the 'ghetto' oh yeah we didnt feel safe at all.. i looked at lucy and said.. we dont have to stay if we dont like it.. right?! we nodded... and we took our weary bodies up the 3 floors to a door... and a sticker saying cuban hostel.. oh and a serious smell of vomit...our home for the next few days!we couldnt check in until 12.. and we hadnt had any sleep.. so it was a little bit of a negative start to the day, what with it being 8.30 am! but not wanting to waste any time we headed on an adventure to the moscow train station, which invovled more giant info maps on the street and negotiating the metro (the deepest one underground in the world by the way - oh and all the stations are in cyrillic, just for kicks! but we made it, again patting each other on the backs. we somehow stumbled into a ticket area and with the help of 'petersburg in you pocket' and my trusty notebook and pen we managed to book ourselves on a fast train to moscow.. whoop whoop! she did initially give us the russian face as i like to call it, but with some perseverance and smiling you can get places with these people! so off it was back to the hostel to check in properly and see our place, we had booked the 20 bed dorm.. exciting.. but it was grand, if a little like a building site, when you didnt smell puke anymore, it was dust, but there was a common room and a mini bar and dj so it turned out ok, we fell on our feet, and evn got the registration thing sorted, for 7 yo yos, some places chare 30! then it was time to be super tourists! but this didnt work out so well on the first day as we stupidly napped and missed all the opening times.. but we found our way about and petersburg is pretty... we initally were not impressed but after moscow... its luffly! i dont want to bore you with the details of all the amazing things we saw, but to put it in perspective, i dont know what we irish were doing with our bungalows back in the day, these russians are gifted with the ol architecture and mosaics! pics to follow.. (if the internet connection allows me) think we have seen more art and churches in the past few weeks then ever before.. highlight?? stumbling upon the davinci's in the hermitage! mental lucky we are, how about seeing the church of the saviour of spilt blood where one of the tsars was shot.. the place is amazing,there are literally thousands of mosiac pieces covering the entire wall surface! then we were a little ripped off in the peter and paul fortress, but we did get to see where the last of the romanovs are buried, which i still find terribly sad. at night, left to our ow devices we spent the better part of a few hours trying to read lonely planet maps (not correct) to get to the irish bar.. where else! we had 2 bottles of our new best friend chanpanskoya and skipped home, but as the sun dont really go down in petersburg in the summer it felt like 8pm all night.. wicked! talk about small world though one of the guys in our hostel actually tuyrned out to know the guy we were staying with (well hoping to stay with) in moscow! claudia;s mate veronica was supposed to be in town and show us about but was having visa issues, so pete stepped in (after some gentle persuasion from us) and put us up! its all about being cheeky when you are travelling in one of the more expoensive countires in the world!
the train to moscow was uneventful.. this was to become a common theme...
pete met us at the station and we had our first gypsy cab experience, havent maanged one withouta man in the car yet, dont know if i want to. petes apartment is huge! helps that he is super well connected and an embassy buff too... the guy couldnt do enough for us! we went out every night, we partied with real life celebrities (news anchors dont cha know!) we didnt really act cool though... screaming, oh my god i saw you on tv doesnt really a cool person make, but she loved it! again pics to follow... pap shots etc!in moscow we mainly partied, we saw the required kremlin and red square, and pete took us out to a wicked market on the sunday, but friday night we hit the ex pat bar, and then the new wicked house party club, solyanka (yes like the soup) didnt make it home till 3 the first night after a serious tasty nosh up at an usbeki restaurant, but that was small fry, the next night we came home AFTER breakfast in the starlight diner in the park.. proper moscow behaviour! we loved moscow... thank you again pete (not that you will read this since i didnt give you the address t he he) again we defied the guidebooks and managed to book a ticket on the main trans siberian line on the monday to irkutsk... with 2 days notice. organised we are not, but its working for us so far... we were in different apartments though, added to the adventure!
so the train.... well.... they say taht you will party all the time, they say not to bring any books, well they are wrong! liars! think its some big in-joke among the lonely planet peeps! we brought 2 bottles of wodka, thinking that others would do the same and we would all share, yeah we drank that in the first night along with the required best mate champers!i was sharing with some dutch travellers and lucy with a crazy russian family somplete with young guy who wanted to learn EVERYTHING about ireland, but i think we didnt impress them when we didnt invite them to our first night wodka party in my apartment.. tough! oh yeah thing to note, russians dont really love the wodka,, its all about the beer! 4 days on the train were spent learning lonely planet off by heart, since we brought nothing else, eating noodles and crips.. and sleeping ALOT. we got brave on the 3rd day and started buying crazy russian food from the babushkas at the stations, but after a cottage cheese incident that was the end of that. nothing much more the say about the train, only that if i had to do it again i would pack nothing but wodka, everything else you can get at the stations, and its wicked cheap!
after 4 days in the shaky box we called the train we were deposited in Irkutsk in Siberia, we STANK.. dirty man contestants had nothing on us. so we cut quite the swathe through the crowd in the station.. mmm stinky... we again beat the odds and sorted ourselves on a train to mongolia and then set about trying to find our hostel... we ended up in a library and she showed us this nasty grimy buildingout back and took us to the 3rd floor where there was a sign saying she would be bak at 11. we chilled in the library for a bit, but things got dodge when the librarian kept printing out notes to us in translated english that the place we had booked was not safe, that it was not registered, that the owner would scam us, that they had problems before, adn that unregistered ex serbians were living there... needless to say we were freaked out! but julia seemed lovely when she came to collect us, and even though i felt like i was part of hostel 3 we followed... there seemed to be others staying there.. good sign. so we dumped our stuff and headed into town to check out the scene (after an extensive de contamination shower ofcourse.) irkutsk is a tiny town, not much to do or to see but they did have this delightful cinema where you laounge in reclining chairs... we hit that place for a bit of russian harry potter (garry potter to his mates here) and then lucy took me out to dinner it being my berfday the next day.. we had a delish italian complete with our best mate (this is becoming a problem,... lucy just asked me what we are going to do without it) then we tripped off home hoping to find everything as it was and not some horror scene, and what do you know there was a little party going on! julia had done all our washing and hung them out! knickers and everything! thats dedication! these french boys were runing riot about the place losing shit and generally being gorgeous. and an english couple were drinking beer at the table, what a turn up for the books! we celebrated officially at midnight with a shot of champers and i cant say i wanted to be anywhere else at that moment... loves you luce (and everyone else who made me feel special!)
as for today we made the trek out to lake baikal to see the famed lake and the surrounding.. bumped into plenty of people from the travels so far and even managed to order a chinese meal in russian (result!) the lake is nice but the weather was a bit nippy so i think the majesty of the thing was lost.. whatever we saw the largest fresh water lake IN THE WORLD, and it happened on my 24th birthday. not something you forget quickly.. well with the amount of champers we are putting away.. maybe!
as for the next steop we are here in our wierdly quiet hostel drinking again and trying to convince china airlines to take our european credit card... its all in a days work! stay reading this who ever you are.... makes me feel special ;)
loves it
beckface xx
right so where to start... probably back in London for the Henley Royal Regatta that the ladies and I attended at the beginning of the month, jaysus it seems like years ago! so we headed over on some serious cheap ryanair flights, like a tenner each but it was to gatwick and we thought nothing of the geography of the whole thing, henley is WAY closer to heathrow, we are idiots! but managed to sort out our star car, the honda jazz and make it through rush hour on the M25 an get to Henley. the weather was out of this world, we intended on camping but had brought nothin but Mr Murphy and Mr Minors galliantly helped out so we didnt have any issues there, god i love playing the female card sometimes! didnt see too much rowing, was busy checking out the ridiculous blazers that all the rowers wear when off the boat, proper puky colours, there was plenty of Pimms consumed, amourous words exchanged and crap food eating.. basically major fun and im intending on making it an annual event! might even stump up for tickets to the posh enclosure next year... maybe, might just end up on the river bank having too much fun with all the rest of the common people!
so then on to tallinn... we were meant to fly bitch assed easrly in the morning so i managed to make my way accross london town at 3 am with my trusty co pilots fanny and lucy helping me with the written instructions (no sat nav for us!)made it with plenty of time to spare too... ut then disaster struck and our plan was delayed for about 4 hours.. damn easy jet! :( luckily i slept for most of it in the airport and it wasnt too long till we were in the sky on our way on our mental russian adventure! Tallin is BEAUTIFUL! its like a little piece of real disney.. Lucy and i stayed in some random hostel that was really comfy and had under floor heating.. well posh! booked our bus o Petersburg easy enough and were off the next night with some english guys from the hostel. we had all bought the delux bus ticket... nothing much delux about it to be honest.. but for an over night bus across into Russia it was grand enough. stopping at the border and going through customs... was not, what a waste of time!but with the english boys beside us it wasnt too annoying. wish i could remember both names, but Nick.. hope you are safe somewhere in eastern europe!
we were uncremoniously dumped in some random place at 6.30 in the morning in the middle of the gross part of petersburg the next morning... none of us had any russian, and the ATM didnt seem to like my card.. uh oh! but a giant Info board with a map of the city came to our rescue.. with out any directions from the hostel people we made it to the Cuban Hostel off Nevkksy Prospect (main street).. a minor miracle in itself... but the place looked well dodge, we were buzzed in and imagine a scene from the 'ghetto' oh yeah we didnt feel safe at all.. i looked at lucy and said.. we dont have to stay if we dont like it.. right?! we nodded... and we took our weary bodies up the 3 floors to a door... and a sticker saying cuban hostel.. oh and a serious smell of vomit...our home for the next few days!we couldnt check in until 12.. and we hadnt had any sleep.. so it was a little bit of a negative start to the day, what with it being 8.30 am! but not wanting to waste any time we headed on an adventure to the moscow train station, which invovled more giant info maps on the street and negotiating the metro (the deepest one underground in the world by the way - oh and all the stations are in cyrillic, just for kicks! but we made it, again patting each other on the backs. we somehow stumbled into a ticket area and with the help of 'petersburg in you pocket' and my trusty notebook and pen we managed to book ourselves on a fast train to moscow.. whoop whoop! she did initially give us the russian face as i like to call it, but with some perseverance and smiling you can get places with these people! so off it was back to the hostel to check in properly and see our place, we had booked the 20 bed dorm.. exciting.. but it was grand, if a little like a building site, when you didnt smell puke anymore, it was dust, but there was a common room and a mini bar and dj so it turned out ok, we fell on our feet, and evn got the registration thing sorted, for 7 yo yos, some places chare 30! then it was time to be super tourists! but this didnt work out so well on the first day as we stupidly napped and missed all the opening times.. but we found our way about and petersburg is pretty... we initally were not impressed but after moscow... its luffly! i dont want to bore you with the details of all the amazing things we saw, but to put it in perspective, i dont know what we irish were doing with our bungalows back in the day, these russians are gifted with the ol architecture and mosaics! pics to follow.. (if the internet connection allows me) think we have seen more art and churches in the past few weeks then ever before.. highlight?? stumbling upon the davinci's in the hermitage! mental lucky we are, how about seeing the church of the saviour of spilt blood where one of the tsars was shot.. the place is amazing,there are literally thousands of mosiac pieces covering the entire wall surface! then we were a little ripped off in the peter and paul fortress, but we did get to see where the last of the romanovs are buried, which i still find terribly sad. at night, left to our ow devices we spent the better part of a few hours trying to read lonely planet maps (not correct) to get to the irish bar.. where else! we had 2 bottles of our new best friend chanpanskoya and skipped home, but as the sun dont really go down in petersburg in the summer it felt like 8pm all night.. wicked! talk about small world though one of the guys in our hostel actually tuyrned out to know the guy we were staying with (well hoping to stay with) in moscow! claudia;s mate veronica was supposed to be in town and show us about but was having visa issues, so pete stepped in (after some gentle persuasion from us) and put us up! its all about being cheeky when you are travelling in one of the more expoensive countires in the world!
the train to moscow was uneventful.. this was to become a common theme...
pete met us at the station and we had our first gypsy cab experience, havent maanged one withouta man in the car yet, dont know if i want to. petes apartment is huge! helps that he is super well connected and an embassy buff too... the guy couldnt do enough for us! we went out every night, we partied with real life celebrities (news anchors dont cha know!) we didnt really act cool though... screaming, oh my god i saw you on tv doesnt really a cool person make, but she loved it! again pics to follow... pap shots etc!in moscow we mainly partied, we saw the required kremlin and red square, and pete took us out to a wicked market on the sunday, but friday night we hit the ex pat bar, and then the new wicked house party club, solyanka (yes like the soup) didnt make it home till 3 the first night after a serious tasty nosh up at an usbeki restaurant, but that was small fry, the next night we came home AFTER breakfast in the starlight diner in the park.. proper moscow behaviour! we loved moscow... thank you again pete (not that you will read this since i didnt give you the address t he he) again we defied the guidebooks and managed to book a ticket on the main trans siberian line on the monday to irkutsk... with 2 days notice. organised we are not, but its working for us so far... we were in different apartments though, added to the adventure!
so the train.... well.... they say taht you will party all the time, they say not to bring any books, well they are wrong! liars! think its some big in-joke among the lonely planet peeps! we brought 2 bottles of wodka, thinking that others would do the same and we would all share, yeah we drank that in the first night along with the required best mate champers!i was sharing with some dutch travellers and lucy with a crazy russian family somplete with young guy who wanted to learn EVERYTHING about ireland, but i think we didnt impress them when we didnt invite them to our first night wodka party in my apartment.. tough! oh yeah thing to note, russians dont really love the wodka,, its all about the beer! 4 days on the train were spent learning lonely planet off by heart, since we brought nothing else, eating noodles and crips.. and sleeping ALOT. we got brave on the 3rd day and started buying crazy russian food from the babushkas at the stations, but after a cottage cheese incident that was the end of that. nothing much more the say about the train, only that if i had to do it again i would pack nothing but wodka, everything else you can get at the stations, and its wicked cheap!
after 4 days in the shaky box we called the train we were deposited in Irkutsk in Siberia, we STANK.. dirty man contestants had nothing on us. so we cut quite the swathe through the crowd in the station.. mmm stinky... we again beat the odds and sorted ourselves on a train to mongolia and then set about trying to find our hostel... we ended up in a library and she showed us this nasty grimy buildingout back and took us to the 3rd floor where there was a sign saying she would be bak at 11. we chilled in the library for a bit, but things got dodge when the librarian kept printing out notes to us in translated english that the place we had booked was not safe, that it was not registered, that the owner would scam us, that they had problems before, adn that unregistered ex serbians were living there... needless to say we were freaked out! but julia seemed lovely when she came to collect us, and even though i felt like i was part of hostel 3 we followed... there seemed to be others staying there.. good sign. so we dumped our stuff and headed into town to check out the scene (after an extensive de contamination shower ofcourse.) irkutsk is a tiny town, not much to do or to see but they did have this delightful cinema where you laounge in reclining chairs... we hit that place for a bit of russian harry potter (garry potter to his mates here) and then lucy took me out to dinner it being my berfday the next day.. we had a delish italian complete with our best mate (this is becoming a problem,... lucy just asked me what we are going to do without it) then we tripped off home hoping to find everything as it was and not some horror scene, and what do you know there was a little party going on! julia had done all our washing and hung them out! knickers and everything! thats dedication! these french boys were runing riot about the place losing shit and generally being gorgeous. and an english couple were drinking beer at the table, what a turn up for the books! we celebrated officially at midnight with a shot of champers and i cant say i wanted to be anywhere else at that moment... loves you luce (and everyone else who made me feel special!)
as for today we made the trek out to lake baikal to see the famed lake and the surrounding.. bumped into plenty of people from the travels so far and even managed to order a chinese meal in russian (result!) the lake is nice but the weather was a bit nippy so i think the majesty of the thing was lost.. whatever we saw the largest fresh water lake IN THE WORLD, and it happened on my 24th birthday. not something you forget quickly.. well with the amount of champers we are putting away.. maybe!
as for the next steop we are here in our wierdly quiet hostel drinking again and trying to convince china airlines to take our european credit card... its all in a days work! stay reading this who ever you are.... makes me feel special ;)
loves it
beckface xx
Thursday, 2 July 2009
travellin part 2!!
so keep a heads up peeps im leaving the country again and will be heading across russia in a bit... stay tuned for updates!
5th place!
so god, dont really know where to start with this blog, although what i do know is that no matter what i write i will defo miss out some bits so im sorry in advance! im just back from prague from the lacrosse world cup, i was banging on about it a while back... hope you remembered! the amazing news is that we came 5th in the world!! it is the best result for an irish lacrosse team yet in an international competition! we are so chuffed. the team was made up with 9 US based players and 9 Ireland based. initially there was some hesitation with the bonding but that didnt last long at all. we spent the weekend before in UCD with a training camp getting to know each other and playing a hell of alot of lacrosse. we stayed in the student accomodation and having not gone to UCD myself it was such fun. the team from the US side was made up of some serious ringers, coaches, members of team canada, US reserve team, etc... so we were , well i was scared at how they might view my ability.. but they were brilliant (a word they also happen to love co the yanks dont use it.. who knew?) so off we went to prague to what we thought was going to be a 4 star hotel... the entire trip cost 2k let me tell you, ate into my travelling fund something rotten! we arrived in the night time and were shocked to see the state of our hotel slavia... right down the way from the swanky place but defo not swanky!there were many emo,s smoking in the lobby, no lights in the corridors and generally an air of soviet distress about the place... the amerians who had not been to surope before were not best pleased!
our first match was against the koreans and we took them apart 22-0! then followed the dutch where we beat them, then the native americans.. bye bye, then it was the home country and this was a very tense match but we beat them too! so our toughest match approached, against the USA! they were the only other unbeaten team in the tourney. we played our hearts out and at one stage were beating them 4-3 but it was not to be and after a bolloxing from their coach we were beaten soundly 21-5.. but all i can remember is that moment when they called time out first cos they were worried! then that put us against the japanese, little machines! they just didnt get tired, or seem to sweat at all... but we bested them after a heart in mouth game of very close scores. so we found ourselves playing for 5th position against the welsh... i do NOT like the welsh supporters at all by the way. meanies! we were beating the welsh until a lightening storm called off the game for a while and we had to take refuge under the stadium.. mental! then it was back on an hour later with 8 minutes to go! we took them down and disney would have been proud, my dad was so happy ... but wished that he hadnt gone home with mum after the first 2 matches! i have an avid fan base now at home which i love!
so the last night came and much drinking and generally fun times were had by all... many athletic women together in the one club would make you think of messyness, but it was cool, well the bits that i can remember.. woke up drunk the next day! but the trip was left on a slightly sour note when we were delayed in the airport for 4 hours!
slavia i will miss you!
our first match was against the koreans and we took them apart 22-0! then followed the dutch where we beat them, then the native americans.. bye bye, then it was the home country and this was a very tense match but we beat them too! so our toughest match approached, against the USA! they were the only other unbeaten team in the tourney. we played our hearts out and at one stage were beating them 4-3 but it was not to be and after a bolloxing from their coach we were beaten soundly 21-5.. but all i can remember is that moment when they called time out first cos they were worried! then that put us against the japanese, little machines! they just didnt get tired, or seem to sweat at all... but we bested them after a heart in mouth game of very close scores. so we found ourselves playing for 5th position against the welsh... i do NOT like the welsh supporters at all by the way. meanies! we were beating the welsh until a lightening storm called off the game for a while and we had to take refuge under the stadium.. mental! then it was back on an hour later with 8 minutes to go! we took them down and disney would have been proud, my dad was so happy ... but wished that he hadnt gone home with mum after the first 2 matches! i have an avid fan base now at home which i love!
so the last night came and much drinking and generally fun times were had by all... many athletic women together in the one club would make you think of messyness, but it was cool, well the bits that i can remember.. woke up drunk the next day! but the trip was left on a slightly sour note when we were delayed in the airport for 4 hours!
slavia i will miss you!
Friday, 15 May 2009
cake-eaters & diet-men
so myself and my mate Kt email alot, generally cos we like each other and our jobs are not that time consuming (eek hope the boss isnt reading this!) anyway throughout the course of the emails we discuss everything and mainly our love lives. its like sex and the city but we are not as sophisticated and our wardrobes are more realistic. recently i coined the phrase - CAKE EATER.
what is a cake eater you ask? well its surprisingly simple to be honest.. the men that want to have their cake and eat it too.. well they dont just want this, they expect it! these are the types of guys who want the stay at home long term girlfriend (the 'one') and should she be out of the country, they want to play away..citing that they have an agreement/ understanding with the girlfriend. these guys are dangerous, they are charming, dangerous, unattainable therefore utterly attractive. they make you feel like a million dollars and then in one breath can take it all away from you, even if you know their situation, you get pulled into it, cos you cant help it, these guys are master's at their craft. these are the guys that dont show you off to their mates, but tell you its that they want you to themselves so you dont suspect. these are the guys that somehow get you to break the girl code and intentionally hurt one of your own. these are the guys that deep deep down are lovely guys, but they are scared of being men.
just this morning i open another email from Kt and in it she has coined another phrase - DIET-MAN/MAN-LITE
now what is a diet man? well not some guy on a diet thats for sure!Kt wondered what a man-lite looks like or even does of a day? For some reason she pictured him in lots of beige and sandals, like a piece of ryevita with flora spread all over it....maybe he'd be like a super food, blue-green algae?....na....maybe granola with honey and yogurt, smooth, sweet and a little bit nuts?!But she begged the question, in a world becoming over-run by cake eaters where would we even know where to start to find a diet man? a diet man is the guy who treats you like a princess but isnt a sap about it. i like to think of him as a fruit salad (please excuse the gayness there...) all fruity, tangy, sweet and a little sharp therefore he would be into bright things and be all loud and confident - oh i like fruit salad guy! he is the guy who keeps you in line but never bruises you. the guy who calls you. the guy who leaves you alone when you've spent too much time together. he is not clingy. he is the guy who wants to be someone, but doesnt neccessarily know what that is, he doesnt need a concrete plan, just a feeling that he is going places. he is the guy that your mate's like. the guy that goes out with the guys, has a great time and doesnt even see the other girls in the room.
what is a cake eater you ask? well its surprisingly simple to be honest.. the men that want to have their cake and eat it too.. well they dont just want this, they expect it! these are the types of guys who want the stay at home long term girlfriend (the 'one') and should she be out of the country, they want to play away..citing that they have an agreement/ understanding with the girlfriend. these guys are dangerous, they are charming, dangerous, unattainable therefore utterly attractive. they make you feel like a million dollars and then in one breath can take it all away from you, even if you know their situation, you get pulled into it, cos you cant help it, these guys are master's at their craft. these are the guys that dont show you off to their mates, but tell you its that they want you to themselves so you dont suspect. these are the guys that somehow get you to break the girl code and intentionally hurt one of your own. these are the guys that deep deep down are lovely guys, but they are scared of being men.
just this morning i open another email from Kt and in it she has coined another phrase - DIET-MAN/MAN-LITE
now what is a diet man? well not some guy on a diet thats for sure!Kt wondered what a man-lite looks like or even does of a day? For some reason she pictured him in lots of beige and sandals, like a piece of ryevita with flora spread all over it....maybe he'd be like a super food, blue-green algae?....na....maybe granola with honey and yogurt, smooth, sweet and a little bit nuts?!But she begged the question, in a world becoming over-run by cake eaters where would we even know where to start to find a diet man? a diet man is the guy who treats you like a princess but isnt a sap about it. i like to think of him as a fruit salad (please excuse the gayness there...) all fruity, tangy, sweet and a little sharp therefore he would be into bright things and be all loud and confident - oh i like fruit salad guy! he is the guy who keeps you in line but never bruises you. the guy who calls you. the guy who leaves you alone when you've spent too much time together. he is not clingy. he is the guy who wants to be someone, but doesnt neccessarily know what that is, he doesnt need a concrete plan, just a feeling that he is going places. he is the guy that your mate's like. the guy that goes out with the guys, has a great time and doesnt even see the other girls in the room.
Tuesday, 5 May 2009
addicted
ok i am addicted, i dont know how it happened but i am.. and its luckily nothing as dangerous as smoking crack or anything like that, its the longer more silent and ugly killer... sugar! i love the stuff. i think that i get sad when i dont eat it.... yummmy yummmy sugar snacks! there is this guy in my office who makes tasty treats all the time and then just gives them out at work. if i had to buy them perhaps i would be more hesitant to munch away but since they are free its digusting how fast and how many i can put away!todays attendants to the mouth orgasm are caramel squares, gluten free brownies, gingerbread and ginger biscuits... i have a weakness for ginger biscuits because somewhere in my head i am convinced that ginger makes your belly happy... !! so yeah today i had to have one of each and then i had about 3 more ginger bikkies.. danger danger, step away from the tupperware! this wouldnt be so bad if i wasnt working my ass off in the gym everyday trying to get fit for prague, it seems like for every one step forward there are about 3 sugar steps back. and a sugar step is way more dangerous than a normal one, dont ya know!
then to add insult to injury i think that if i dont buy the stuff then i will be eating healthy, i have frozen brocolli and spinach in my fridge, i have veggies in there too and a fruit bowl that is almost full and yet somehow the natural sugars are not enough when rob's treats are in the work canteen. generally it is a rush to the kitchen when word gets out that he has brought them in but today fiona stayed put and i really admire her strength. if only i could be so good! its jsut with getting up at 6.30, working out twice a day and eatin all the right stuff its so easy to feel the need to treat yourself every once in a while, even if that once in a while seems to be comng around more nd more often.
so next time you see me, try not to look to surprised when all the working out im doing is just keeping my head above obesity :(
then to add insult to injury i think that if i dont buy the stuff then i will be eating healthy, i have frozen brocolli and spinach in my fridge, i have veggies in there too and a fruit bowl that is almost full and yet somehow the natural sugars are not enough when rob's treats are in the work canteen. generally it is a rush to the kitchen when word gets out that he has brought them in but today fiona stayed put and i really admire her strength. if only i could be so good! its jsut with getting up at 6.30, working out twice a day and eatin all the right stuff its so easy to feel the need to treat yourself every once in a while, even if that once in a while seems to be comng around more nd more often.
so next time you see me, try not to look to surprised when all the working out im doing is just keeping my head above obesity :(
Tuesday, 14 April 2009
Stockport 8s
hey everyone,
coming to you very foggy today. and im not talking about the weather! something about 4 day weekends are really dangerous to the concentration etc have felt all day that there is something seriously up with my focus. dont think im going to go to the gym today again, think i might pass out in the middle of the aerobics class, and sleep! that would be a hoot wouldnt it?! its all becuase i had an awesome weekend in stockport. i love the place, even if it is a bit of a hole! where to start with the story...
well lets start on the Thursday, thats when things went a little belly up for me. so i met the dear mrs arnold at the old school house bar where she was showing off her new scar (chicks dig scare) we popped over to the 51 afterwards to meet all the rest of her work crew, they seem nice if a little tough to talk to sometimes..then i whisked her off to the shebeen for dinner and a show, the show being my bro gig, MoJo (check them out... every thursday) so we ordered... em the service leaves alot to be desired, our burgers took over an hour to arrive... what?! then ealron arrives to add to our party and we lounged full on the couch right infront of MoJo who have recently recruited a keyboard player (i hope he stays.. he is awesome!) they were rocking out to a large crowd, mainly becuase it was holy thursday and every one was desparate to get the booze in before the drought... there was another band downstairs, so mojo were all about the electric set to be heard over the general hubbub. they were so good. coach chris joined us after a while a bit giggly from the success of dublinfest and had prob just caught cooties from drinking from the winning trophy cup..about midnight i bid everyone good night and trundled home with my car still full of bavaria that was destined for a raffle that didnt work out :( so it was 12.30 when i lugged the 5 boxes of beer, 1 magic box, 2 boxes of clothes and condoms and 4 boxes of glasses out of my car. this took a while, then i managed to pile them all onto the trolley that the porters keep for such emergencies, there was no porter though cos of the hour so i had to do this all myself..finally after much huffing, puffing and a serious lazy man load i managed to get the trolley into the lift, adn over to my door, but i couldnt get it in the door over the treshold so i yanked it wicked hard and one of the boxes of beer went bye bye and started to leak beer pee everywhere!!! aaaagh not cool!!! so finally i cleaned everything up, chucked the beer and the broken glass and packed my bag for the weekend, it was now 1.30 in the am!! crawled into bed to rest my eyes and was shocked awake at 4am to get the frak out of dodge and collect the girls.the adventure had begun!
we barely made our flight, apparently 1 hour is not long enough in the morning in dublin airport during a bank holiday! but we made it with minutes to spare and i didnt have to run once! sweet, promptly we all fell asleep on the 6.30 flight and looked a little worse for wear when we touched down in manchester. we then rolled out to the car park and found what looked like our taxi and it was open.. where was the driver?! we bailed in and he came running around the corner, apparently he had been waiting inside.. how did he miss us with our enormous bags? he brought us to the davenport hotel.. legend place, very into floral designs! it was still only about 8.30 in the am when we got there so the poor woman only had 3 rooms ready, people were sleeping in the other ones! so we drew straws and julie and i got the tinyiest room ever! but it had a bed and we promptly fell onto it and fell asleep! then it was time for our first matches.. we faced off against winslow and the blues in the rain, not a good start as we lost to both :( but as we were trying to warm up in the club house and chow down on some chilli and burgers and we met the people from the John Wig-Tour group. mental people we were all about the drinking games etc. needless to say the dublin girls (minus moi) got stuck in and bonded! that night we went to dinner in an italian that turned into a disco after the food had been served!! random! we rocked out and sweated out the food, fell into bed about midnight... then it was the tourney....
we dressed in 80s random gear and sweated our way through many games, we had so much fun, the games were only15 minutes and half pitch, there was loads of running, sweating (the outfits included tights!!) and laughes. we didnt do that well but we did manage to come 12 out of 16 and more importantly we beat the scots! even if it was only the junior team it meant something to us that got knocked out of the championship by the senior scots in teh euros! that night we split up and headed to dinner and the pub early expecting the girls to follow, about 10pm i was knackered so the little group of grannies headed home, only to see the others waiting at the bus stop outside our hotel!! the next day a group of weary tired ladies met for brekkie and headed out on mystery trail to team up with the scots and face off aginst the dutch.. my god we have a tough game in store for the worlds! they beat us fair and square but again it was good learning. we managed to scab a lift to the airport straight after the match (sweaty) and were early enough for our flight to get a burger king into us.. mmmm bad food!
so what did i learn? that england has better weather than us, better facilities than us, better skillz! what do we have... better looking players ;)
coming to you very foggy today. and im not talking about the weather! something about 4 day weekends are really dangerous to the concentration etc have felt all day that there is something seriously up with my focus. dont think im going to go to the gym today again, think i might pass out in the middle of the aerobics class, and sleep! that would be a hoot wouldnt it?! its all becuase i had an awesome weekend in stockport. i love the place, even if it is a bit of a hole! where to start with the story...
well lets start on the Thursday, thats when things went a little belly up for me. so i met the dear mrs arnold at the old school house bar where she was showing off her new scar (chicks dig scare) we popped over to the 51 afterwards to meet all the rest of her work crew, they seem nice if a little tough to talk to sometimes..then i whisked her off to the shebeen for dinner and a show, the show being my bro gig, MoJo (check them out... every thursday) so we ordered... em the service leaves alot to be desired, our burgers took over an hour to arrive... what?! then ealron arrives to add to our party and we lounged full on the couch right infront of MoJo who have recently recruited a keyboard player (i hope he stays.. he is awesome!) they were rocking out to a large crowd, mainly becuase it was holy thursday and every one was desparate to get the booze in before the drought... there was another band downstairs, so mojo were all about the electric set to be heard over the general hubbub. they were so good. coach chris joined us after a while a bit giggly from the success of dublinfest and had prob just caught cooties from drinking from the winning trophy cup..about midnight i bid everyone good night and trundled home with my car still full of bavaria that was destined for a raffle that didnt work out :( so it was 12.30 when i lugged the 5 boxes of beer, 1 magic box, 2 boxes of clothes and condoms and 4 boxes of glasses out of my car. this took a while, then i managed to pile them all onto the trolley that the porters keep for such emergencies, there was no porter though cos of the hour so i had to do this all myself..finally after much huffing, puffing and a serious lazy man load i managed to get the trolley into the lift, adn over to my door, but i couldnt get it in the door over the treshold so i yanked it wicked hard and one of the boxes of beer went bye bye and started to leak beer pee everywhere!!! aaaagh not cool!!! so finally i cleaned everything up, chucked the beer and the broken glass and packed my bag for the weekend, it was now 1.30 in the am!! crawled into bed to rest my eyes and was shocked awake at 4am to get the frak out of dodge and collect the girls.the adventure had begun!
we barely made our flight, apparently 1 hour is not long enough in the morning in dublin airport during a bank holiday! but we made it with minutes to spare and i didnt have to run once! sweet, promptly we all fell asleep on the 6.30 flight and looked a little worse for wear when we touched down in manchester. we then rolled out to the car park and found what looked like our taxi and it was open.. where was the driver?! we bailed in and he came running around the corner, apparently he had been waiting inside.. how did he miss us with our enormous bags? he brought us to the davenport hotel.. legend place, very into floral designs! it was still only about 8.30 in the am when we got there so the poor woman only had 3 rooms ready, people were sleeping in the other ones! so we drew straws and julie and i got the tinyiest room ever! but it had a bed and we promptly fell onto it and fell asleep! then it was time for our first matches.. we faced off against winslow and the blues in the rain, not a good start as we lost to both :( but as we were trying to warm up in the club house and chow down on some chilli and burgers and we met the people from the John Wig-Tour group. mental people we were all about the drinking games etc. needless to say the dublin girls (minus moi) got stuck in and bonded! that night we went to dinner in an italian that turned into a disco after the food had been served!! random! we rocked out and sweated out the food, fell into bed about midnight... then it was the tourney....
we dressed in 80s random gear and sweated our way through many games, we had so much fun, the games were only15 minutes and half pitch, there was loads of running, sweating (the outfits included tights!!) and laughes. we didnt do that well but we did manage to come 12 out of 16 and more importantly we beat the scots! even if it was only the junior team it meant something to us that got knocked out of the championship by the senior scots in teh euros! that night we split up and headed to dinner and the pub early expecting the girls to follow, about 10pm i was knackered so the little group of grannies headed home, only to see the others waiting at the bus stop outside our hotel!! the next day a group of weary tired ladies met for brekkie and headed out on mystery trail to team up with the scots and face off aginst the dutch.. my god we have a tough game in store for the worlds! they beat us fair and square but again it was good learning. we managed to scab a lift to the airport straight after the match (sweaty) and were early enough for our flight to get a burger king into us.. mmmm bad food!
so what did i learn? that england has better weather than us, better facilities than us, better skillz! what do we have... better looking players ;)
Tuesday, 7 April 2009
Great Ireland Run
so why would i, the person who HATES to run, actually sign up for another 10km?? its all to do with the blasted world cup which is ever looming. im in the gym every day working out, sweating away the fat in a bid to be at least as fast as the other girls when i get over there, competitive? moi?! never! so i signed up for the Great Ireland Run that took place on the 5th of April in the park. it was a lovely day but i was in a rotten mood, you see i had had some drama over the weekend with my car dying on the way home in the middle of no where in the country, it was something out of a slasher flick i tell you!! but anyway the long and short of it is that i got towed home and the car was pronounced dead on arrival. i had to enjoy public transport to get me to the run on sunday, whoop di do. i made it just, but i was luggin my weekend bag with me, the left luggage dude at hueston was off sick.. and yes i did wonder why there was only one such employee for the job? or why there werent individual lockers in the station, damn terrorists ruin everyting!
so i sweated my way into the park, people we getting buses inside the park to the starting line! disgraceful! so i soldierd on and finally made it! the reason for the bad mood? mom read the bus times wrong so we missed the first adn second bus... i had no time for brekkie and was starving.. so i stripped right there in the park infront of 11,000 people! not that anyone was bothered looking ;) we dumped our bags and set off to look for food, then i rethought that idea and threw an entire green powerade into me (have a wierd attachedment to them now.. hated them before) then wally and i had to pee, now all around the ditch were loads of guys pissing, so unfair, so we wandered down until we came across the ladies area, down we went and squatted and squirted like the best of them!! that done we split up, wally went to the fast area and ealron and i humbly stood near the back with the wlkers. just as we crossed the start ealron decided that he needed the loo! so i tol him to hold it and go half way through but he was having none of it and disappeared to the now empty portaloos! so i was left alone, with no ipod, the battery had gone in mine! the first 5 km were easy.. then to 8km was a hard slog that nearly killed me, there were hills!!! the last 2 were tough but you could see the end so not that tough... i did it 6 minutes faster than the first time which i was super impressed with, and i only walked for about 20 paces twice. i have signed up to do the flora mini marathon now, got very emotional during the race when i realised i need a running buddy who is willing to go my pace and tell me im great all the while i bitch them out of it! any takers???
the mini marathon is on June 1st, with the gym every day i think i should be able to do it in 1hr flat!! that will be shaving 9 minutes off my time.. think i can do it!!
so i sweated my way into the park, people we getting buses inside the park to the starting line! disgraceful! so i soldierd on and finally made it! the reason for the bad mood? mom read the bus times wrong so we missed the first adn second bus... i had no time for brekkie and was starving.. so i stripped right there in the park infront of 11,000 people! not that anyone was bothered looking ;) we dumped our bags and set off to look for food, then i rethought that idea and threw an entire green powerade into me (have a wierd attachedment to them now.. hated them before) then wally and i had to pee, now all around the ditch were loads of guys pissing, so unfair, so we wandered down until we came across the ladies area, down we went and squatted and squirted like the best of them!! that done we split up, wally went to the fast area and ealron and i humbly stood near the back with the wlkers. just as we crossed the start ealron decided that he needed the loo! so i tol him to hold it and go half way through but he was having none of it and disappeared to the now empty portaloos! so i was left alone, with no ipod, the battery had gone in mine! the first 5 km were easy.. then to 8km was a hard slog that nearly killed me, there were hills!!! the last 2 were tough but you could see the end so not that tough... i did it 6 minutes faster than the first time which i was super impressed with, and i only walked for about 20 paces twice. i have signed up to do the flora mini marathon now, got very emotional during the race when i realised i need a running buddy who is willing to go my pace and tell me im great all the while i bitch them out of it! any takers???
the mini marathon is on June 1st, with the gym every day i think i should be able to do it in 1hr flat!! that will be shaving 9 minutes off my time.. think i can do it!!
Wednesday, 1 April 2009
lack of a social life
so i suppose you could say the my life definitely has changed direction in the past week. im not being half arsed about this gym thing at all and im so proud of myself! im in there every morning at 73.0 slogging away and up until this morning i was doing that un guided.. but this morning i got to meet with the delish Simon my trainer. i call him mine but he is just a free service that comes with the gym, i like to think he is mine though. he is well tasty! standing about 6foot 4ish and a long lean body at that, he is fun to watch when demo-ing the moves im supposed to be concentrating on! god im such a perv! so we went through my shoulders/back/chest and arms work out this morning, have another date with him next tuesday morning for some lower limb punishment!
so the classes, yes im going twice a day! have tried spinning, havent been back since the first time. tried out the body combat class with the crazy brazilian who needed us to smile and enjoy the pain, the polish (i think) aerobics teacher who has the perfect body, im in love with her! there is another aerobics teacher who is irish and has a far more complicated routine..she is a special kind of crazy!the body pump class with the weights wasnt as bad as i thought it might be, but i defo will have to up my weights for the next class. yet to try is the step aerobics (feel the burn), the circuit training (the delish simon runs this) and im sure there are others ones out there dying to have me sweat my way through their class.. give me time! the down side of all this running, jumping and lunging is that my knees are acting up. this is not good, think i have to visit a physio to get me some industrial strength knee braces, dont want to pop a knee cap during the world cup now do i?!
speaking of the world cup we got our april training schedules yesterday.. thanks John! we got a new coach here in Dublin, Kaityln is her name. she took us for a fun training over the weekend and although the atmosphere was light hearted i think we really got to cover some really important stuff which is great. we had it in bushy park and loads of people were asking about us.. big up Ireland Lacrosse!! then last night in a bid to put a little money into the ILF we had a table quiz, i think it was a huge success. the prizes were kindly donated by ealron from bavaria (handy to have friends in the business) and pam gave away a weekend for 2 that she had won in a previous table quiz. fun was had by all, even the cheaters who won, oh yeah im being contraversial but there was plenty of texting going on.. shocking! so the figures arent in yet but fingers crossed we did good!
so the classes, yes im going twice a day! have tried spinning, havent been back since the first time. tried out the body combat class with the crazy brazilian who needed us to smile and enjoy the pain, the polish (i think) aerobics teacher who has the perfect body, im in love with her! there is another aerobics teacher who is irish and has a far more complicated routine..she is a special kind of crazy!the body pump class with the weights wasnt as bad as i thought it might be, but i defo will have to up my weights for the next class. yet to try is the step aerobics (feel the burn), the circuit training (the delish simon runs this) and im sure there are others ones out there dying to have me sweat my way through their class.. give me time! the down side of all this running, jumping and lunging is that my knees are acting up. this is not good, think i have to visit a physio to get me some industrial strength knee braces, dont want to pop a knee cap during the world cup now do i?!
speaking of the world cup we got our april training schedules yesterday.. thanks John! we got a new coach here in Dublin, Kaityln is her name. she took us for a fun training over the weekend and although the atmosphere was light hearted i think we really got to cover some really important stuff which is great. we had it in bushy park and loads of people were asking about us.. big up Ireland Lacrosse!! then last night in a bid to put a little money into the ILF we had a table quiz, i think it was a huge success. the prizes were kindly donated by ealron from bavaria (handy to have friends in the business) and pam gave away a weekend for 2 that she had won in a previous table quiz. fun was had by all, even the cheaters who won, oh yeah im being contraversial but there was plenty of texting going on.. shocking! so the figures arent in yet but fingers crossed we did good!
Wednesday, 25 March 2009
LA Fitness
so i bit the bullet and did it, just like i said i would. and you know what? i do NOT like to spin!! who knew, well i kindof thought i might not like it, but there ya go, you have to try everything at least once (in spinning apparently it takes 3 times to really find out how much you hate having bruised lady bits!) so the delish Kt and i made it to the gym with minutes to spare, not a good start! everyone had been sneaky and gotten to the class a little earlier and had bagged all the good bikes, i mean good when i say the ones at the bottom of the class!! Kt and i were stuck right up the front, the instructor took us through the bike and on we hopped and got to warming up. let me tell you it was a tough 45 minutes. there were times i thought i would puke, times i thought i would fall off the damn thing and then others when i was sure i was going to pass out! but i made it... and then it turns out that our seats were incorrectly positioned, no wonder it was that extra bit uncomfortable (yeah i realise the class is no walk in the park but its nice to have something to blame!) when we were done, there was a bit of euphoria i must admit, then some serious wobbling down the stairs! but my head was in my arse cos i left my trainers in the gym, and now they are gone forever, luckily i was thinking of getting new ones anyway so its not that big a deal, just a push to take the finger out and take care of it. this morning i fell out of bed and into more gym gear, was suprised how well i could move etc, but the lady bits... my! well they were sore! but we rocked out this morning on the machines and had a bit of a laugh, bit of a sweat etc.. going to go to Body Pump tonight (im scared) and then salsa with the girls... i might be a wreck tomo!! might be?... defo will be!!
Tuesday, 24 March 2009
the road to Prague
ok do i have finally done it! i have joined a freaking gym.... i might have been paying membership to blasted curves for years and never gone but this is a real gym with machines to play on and its close to work so i can go in the mornings and still have time to have a leisurely shower and walk into work (yes people i am walking from now on!) i think i will be saving the moola on the car and giving the fat the heave ho! as prague draws closer i am getting the fear... the fear is not my friend, it is my motivator, i will no longer hide underneath my duvet until 8.15 in the morning and roll (literally somtimes) out of the bed and into the clothes a i find and then stumble through the house into the car to get to work. now i will be a reformed couch potatoe, i will be up at 7.15 to get to the gym for 7.30, do an hour in the gym, be it a class or some weights or the dreaded cardio..then hit the showers and meander to work and enjoy a healthy brekkie of porridge (that nukable stuff cant be good for you but it tastes yummy!) i mean i am already making my food for lunch at home, this cant be too hard... although i think trying to make a stirfry dish at 7 in the am might be my downfall so i really will have to be organised, not my best trait ;)
so im hitting my first class tonight, decided to jump into the deep end with a spinning class, i heard they hurt... ALOT... but nothing better for a wake up call, the guy who showed us around said he could do 20 minutes the first class he tried and he seemed like a fattie to me now so i have an inflated idea of what i should be able to do! oh dear! im going with the delish Kt from Tripod (although sssssssshhh its supposed to be a secret, she lives with a rake of men who would ridicule her for joining and are ridiculously competitive!)
the aim of this is to rid the body of the flab, try not to lose the boobies, and even harder, try not to become all 'strong' as my mother would say ;) watch this space!
so im hitting my first class tonight, decided to jump into the deep end with a spinning class, i heard they hurt... ALOT... but nothing better for a wake up call, the guy who showed us around said he could do 20 minutes the first class he tried and he seemed like a fattie to me now so i have an inflated idea of what i should be able to do! oh dear! im going with the delish Kt from Tripod (although sssssssshhh its supposed to be a secret, she lives with a rake of men who would ridicule her for joining and are ridiculously competitive!)
the aim of this is to rid the body of the flab, try not to lose the boobies, and even harder, try not to become all 'strong' as my mother would say ;) watch this space!
Friday, 13 March 2009
keeping up with the Arnolds!
was looking through some of the blogs that im following and found myself disgruntled when people have not been updating for my enjoyment. then i thought about my recent posts and they have not been the most consistent so am going to make a concentrated effort to rectify that, although i dont think they are as much fun as they were when i was travelling....
so what has been going on in my life.. hmmm now i work for cartrawler (yawn tastic) and am busy feeling guilty for not working out enough for the prague adventure (but who wants to hear about that!) but a highlight of the past week was last night when i finally got to meet up with my mistress Mrs Arnold and have some dinner and catch the tail end of my bro's gig in sibean che on george's street... oh rebecca is this a plug for your brother's new band MoJo who play in sibean che every thursday>??? why yes it is! anyone who is in dublin and not sure what to do on a Thursday should get themselves a table in sibean che for some delish irish food and some great music. so i didnt realise it was a restaurant bar, so the idiot i am kelly and myself went and ate in CafeBarDeli 2 doors up from the place. oops. the starters were devine, mains boring and dessert.... yummy fool, which kelly had never had before (one of those things that never wuite got across the water) so we headed to see the bro afterwards and i plied the gorgeous kelly with wine at dinner, tequila in the bar in the hope of getting into her pants, but it was all in vain (that and i cant bring myself to be a lesbot.. no offence intended to all the vag lovers out there) was impressed with the place, the music and the general mood of the place, will be back there next week folks, come join me!
other than that shameless plug havent got alot going on this weekend. there might be a party i have to attend this evening, and im sure the outcome will provide many the amusing anecdotes in future posts....
but for now let me leave you with this thought.... head to george's street on a thursday to see my brother play!!!
so what has been going on in my life.. hmmm now i work for cartrawler (yawn tastic) and am busy feeling guilty for not working out enough for the prague adventure (but who wants to hear about that!) but a highlight of the past week was last night when i finally got to meet up with my mistress Mrs Arnold and have some dinner and catch the tail end of my bro's gig in sibean che on george's street... oh rebecca is this a plug for your brother's new band MoJo who play in sibean che every thursday>??? why yes it is! anyone who is in dublin and not sure what to do on a Thursday should get themselves a table in sibean che for some delish irish food and some great music. so i didnt realise it was a restaurant bar, so the idiot i am kelly and myself went and ate in CafeBarDeli 2 doors up from the place. oops. the starters were devine, mains boring and dessert.... yummy fool, which kelly had never had before (one of those things that never wuite got across the water) so we headed to see the bro afterwards and i plied the gorgeous kelly with wine at dinner, tequila in the bar in the hope of getting into her pants, but it was all in vain (that and i cant bring myself to be a lesbot.. no offence intended to all the vag lovers out there) was impressed with the place, the music and the general mood of the place, will be back there next week folks, come join me!
other than that shameless plug havent got alot going on this weekend. there might be a party i have to attend this evening, and im sure the outcome will provide many the amusing anecdotes in future posts....
but for now let me leave you with this thought.... head to george's street on a thursday to see my brother play!!!
Wednesday, 4 March 2009
The weekend that nearly killed me
if you had asked me a while ago whether i thought a 4 day weekend was a good idea the answer would have been a resounding YES! but the reality of the situation is quite different i discovered last weekend when i finally got my wish. so i was finished work last week on the wednesday, was i polite about it, nope! made everyone super I made everyone super jealous of the entire thing mwah ha ha ha! Or so I thought…. So that night I went to get Katy from the airport and along with wally, a very fragrant lemon curd pie and some empty wine bottles rolling around in the boot off we went to offaly. We passed through the mystery toll thing on the M50 and I didn’t realise until today when I got a fine! Shocking behaviour! Anyhoo onwards into the night I drove, and I don’t like to drive in the night by the way, I keep fantasising about death, wait that’s prob not the bestest description, I tend to visualise getting smushed into strawberry jam on the motorway at night, think it might have something to do with my car being made of paper.. anyway the girls kept me occupied on the way down and we rolled into camp headon about 1am. We crept into the house like mice, or so we thought, should’ve known better. The parents we still awake so greetings were shared and them we all rolled into bed in preparation for the wedding the next day.. OH YESS… the WEDDING, the whole reason I got time off last week. Finally Katie and Paul tied the knot (they have been together for 11 years only..) so the next morning I woke up about 9.30 and had a leisurely brekkie with the girls as my dad was painting the gate (how country) and then the beautification began… showers, and spray, face painting and hair problems followed. The wedding was black tie, so glamorous! I wore a lovely gold and black number from monsoon, katy was rocking a black strapless from monsoon and wally was all provocative with her rabbit fur shawl! Basically we looked HOT. Cue my dad arriving in from the farm still filthy and it being 10 minutes until the start of the ceremony! So I left them to it and we hightailed it to the church, they somehow were only minutes behind us tho! Odd! The ceremony was lovely, there were tears and giggles and many many photos. And then it was all over (well it took about 2 hours!) next stop durrow castle to check in and grab some nibbles. The food was delish, the speachs amusing and the cake divine. We danced until 2am and then everyone hightailed it to the bar. I found myself slipping so we ladies retired to our room to prepare for day 2. the partying continued until 7am!! I went for a run in the morning (yes I am a sap) and then managed to sleep for another 3 hours after breakfast, think I had too much redbull in my system from the night before! That evening saw us all getting dolled up again for a big party Birr style, with a bbq, dj Neil and many many drinks… I might have misbehaved a smigen but it wasn’t anything I needed to worry about. The fear did not come! The next morning suddenly it was all over before we realised it.
But no sleep for the wicked… it was into the car with me and wally and we hightailed it up to Dublin. I had a lacrosse tournament all weekend and I was a little late for the first match. But I made it, felt awful but managed to win both matches! Whilst I was sweating it out on the pitch the guys from England flew over for th Ireland England match. Now not to put a dampener on the blog post but a few weeks ago my friend Andy was diagnosed with terminal brain stem cancer. He has between 9months and 2 years left and is the most positive person I have ever known. He is a hero for anyone out there in the same position. He fully intends to break the record and live for a long time. But bareing in mind that this is real life and not a Disney movie he is taking the bull by the horns and doing everything (and prob everyone) he wants to. He organised a trip over with 5 mates for the match. They stayed at mine, and no matter how knackered I was I made sure that Andy was enjoying himself! So after the match I fell in the door and they guys all greeted me, from afar though cos I prob stank! Mix of booze and sweat is never good! After a quick shower and change it was out the door to searsons for the match. All was going well even though the guys wore their English jerseys… until one trollop from about 3 people in front chucked her half pint of beer back in their direction! She didn’t really get them though just Carla, Tom’s Irish girlfriend, yeah she wasn’t impressed at all… some people! When the match was over and the English suitably ridiculed for their heritage we headed home with some booze and order 12 pizzas for 10 people!!! Oh my god I have never seen so many pizza’s in my life! Brilliant! We gorged ourselves and stil the guys managed to get quite drunk, then it was off to the club with us…
The lacrosse people were headed that direction as well for the night out and what ensued was hazy for most people, mainly the girls who woke up with permenant marker on their arms and black eyes (apparently there was a late night throw about…) it was fun to swap stories with people the next day at the final day of games, oh yeah I went out to play more lax the next morning. The guys went to wander the city intending to see my play at some stage but that didn’t work out and im kindof glad it didn’t cos we didn’t play that well the next day.. we still won the competition though! And I stuck around until after the guys match to receive the trophy, I suppose that’s what you get for bein the captain, oh yeah im the Dub Lax ladies captain, random?! so that night i was supposed to go out with the lax people again and meet all the guys on the brighton team propely and perhaps swap some spit with one of them if he got lucky but when i got home and warmed up under a shower i realised that my body was on strike! it was all i could do to keep my eyes open that evening. luckily all the guys were knackered too so it was bed early and then people left at like 4.30 am for flights aaaaaaagh. needless to say im looking forward to this weekend and all the sleeping im going to be doing.... but wait... hark i hear the song of britney teasing me with her beats... perhaps i can sleep when im dead? ;)
But no sleep for the wicked… it was into the car with me and wally and we hightailed it up to Dublin. I had a lacrosse tournament all weekend and I was a little late for the first match. But I made it, felt awful but managed to win both matches! Whilst I was sweating it out on the pitch the guys from England flew over for th Ireland England match. Now not to put a dampener on the blog post but a few weeks ago my friend Andy was diagnosed with terminal brain stem cancer. He has between 9months and 2 years left and is the most positive person I have ever known. He is a hero for anyone out there in the same position. He fully intends to break the record and live for a long time. But bareing in mind that this is real life and not a Disney movie he is taking the bull by the horns and doing everything (and prob everyone) he wants to. He organised a trip over with 5 mates for the match. They stayed at mine, and no matter how knackered I was I made sure that Andy was enjoying himself! So after the match I fell in the door and they guys all greeted me, from afar though cos I prob stank! Mix of booze and sweat is never good! After a quick shower and change it was out the door to searsons for the match. All was going well even though the guys wore their English jerseys… until one trollop from about 3 people in front chucked her half pint of beer back in their direction! She didn’t really get them though just Carla, Tom’s Irish girlfriend, yeah she wasn’t impressed at all… some people! When the match was over and the English suitably ridiculed for their heritage we headed home with some booze and order 12 pizzas for 10 people!!! Oh my god I have never seen so many pizza’s in my life! Brilliant! We gorged ourselves and stil the guys managed to get quite drunk, then it was off to the club with us…
The lacrosse people were headed that direction as well for the night out and what ensued was hazy for most people, mainly the girls who woke up with permenant marker on their arms and black eyes (apparently there was a late night throw about…) it was fun to swap stories with people the next day at the final day of games, oh yeah I went out to play more lax the next morning. The guys went to wander the city intending to see my play at some stage but that didn’t work out and im kindof glad it didn’t cos we didn’t play that well the next day.. we still won the competition though! And I stuck around until after the guys match to receive the trophy, I suppose that’s what you get for bein the captain, oh yeah im the Dub Lax ladies captain, random?! so that night i was supposed to go out with the lax people again and meet all the guys on the brighton team propely and perhaps swap some spit with one of them if he got lucky but when i got home and warmed up under a shower i realised that my body was on strike! it was all i could do to keep my eyes open that evening. luckily all the guys were knackered too so it was bed early and then people left at like 4.30 am for flights aaaaaaagh. needless to say im looking forward to this weekend and all the sleeping im going to be doing.... but wait... hark i hear the song of britney teasing me with her beats... perhaps i can sleep when im dead? ;)
Thursday, 29 January 2009
World Cup
So I could go on and on abut what went down in India but frankly there are some things that you want to keep to yourself?! that and im feeling very lazy etc these days about this blog. its been a while and this always happens to me when im doing a diary etc, something i used to have when i was a teenager but was taught not to have it when all my family read it over and over again! but yeah if they didnt read it i would get bored of it soon enough and lose it or something. not very dedicated there am i! so here i am again blogging and this time with some great news! i have bee selected to play for ireland once more in the world cup this time! how awesome! the competition will be hosted in prague over 10 days in june from the 17th to the 27th, all are welcome to see how we get on. im very excited. although very scared about the amount of training i have to put in to make it worth it, i want to be so fit that i dont lose my breath out there... well if im not the first person gasping i will be happy! so there you have it folks.... world cup countdown has begun!
Thursday, 15 January 2009
Palolem Nights
hey everyone,
im back and blacker although now im orange.. and a little faded... but i have had time to think about my adventures and experiences and now am putting them online. so where did i leave off, oh yeah, just about when we got to palolem.. it was an unfortunate ride with a taxi man who definitely was screwing us. but hugh paid for it up front so we went with it and it was worth missing the many many buses. so we arrived into this paradise of a beach that looks like the beach but bigger with more shacks. we immediately met some guy who brought us to his shacks. Jazz Emily and I took one and Hugh and Denis took the other. our hut was massive with shower made for many and a sexy pink mossie net and right next door to the guys. we spent the days on the beach and the nights rocking up to Cafe Del Mar the only place that stayed awake all night and served many drinks. but that was before the drama that created the series that we now know as Palolem Nights.... so Jazz introduced us to Dan and James. they were both obsessed with her and almost fell out over her! each night and day each would try for her attention.. nothing was exactly working out until the night that we bought the 'same same but different' tee shirts. that was the night i got talking with Lee. so that night dressed like ridiculous people jazz emily and i wore a crazy teeshirt and disgusting pants and danced like lunatics. Lee obviously liked it cos me and him went skinnydipping later that night, well he went skinny dipping, i just went for a dip, in my clothes! bless him. but after that the dress up bug had really and truely set in so the next night we all decided to have an 'Indian Bad Taste night' Jazz emily and I got ourselves some awful swimsuits that were baywatch high cut and we pranced about al night in them and thats when Jazz hooked up with James, I got Lee again and then Dam went crazy adn tried to smake James down but missed and ended up getting stitches!! And what about Uncle Simon, Richard and ofcourse the problem with Jazz losing her passport and getting stuck in India to this day?? well thats tomo's story... when the wine has worn off!
xx
im back and blacker although now im orange.. and a little faded... but i have had time to think about my adventures and experiences and now am putting them online. so where did i leave off, oh yeah, just about when we got to palolem.. it was an unfortunate ride with a taxi man who definitely was screwing us. but hugh paid for it up front so we went with it and it was worth missing the many many buses. so we arrived into this paradise of a beach that looks like the beach but bigger with more shacks. we immediately met some guy who brought us to his shacks. Jazz Emily and I took one and Hugh and Denis took the other. our hut was massive with shower made for many and a sexy pink mossie net and right next door to the guys. we spent the days on the beach and the nights rocking up to Cafe Del Mar the only place that stayed awake all night and served many drinks. but that was before the drama that created the series that we now know as Palolem Nights.... so Jazz introduced us to Dan and James. they were both obsessed with her and almost fell out over her! each night and day each would try for her attention.. nothing was exactly working out until the night that we bought the 'same same but different' tee shirts. that was the night i got talking with Lee. so that night dressed like ridiculous people jazz emily and i wore a crazy teeshirt and disgusting pants and danced like lunatics. Lee obviously liked it cos me and him went skinnydipping later that night, well he went skinny dipping, i just went for a dip, in my clothes! bless him. but after that the dress up bug had really and truely set in so the next night we all decided to have an 'Indian Bad Taste night' Jazz emily and I got ourselves some awful swimsuits that were baywatch high cut and we pranced about al night in them and thats when Jazz hooked up with James, I got Lee again and then Dam went crazy adn tried to smake James down but missed and ended up getting stitches!! And what about Uncle Simon, Richard and ofcourse the problem with Jazz losing her passport and getting stuck in India to this day?? well thats tomo's story... when the wine has worn off!
xx
Thursday, 11 December 2008
Goan Adventures
hey peeps i know it has been an age since i last blogged and im sure the countless people who read this (yes you arnolds!) will be interetsed to know what has been going on in the time that has elapsed... well when i last spoke i was in anjuna all alone and being eaten alive by those pesky mosquitos.. they made sweet munching love to my ankles on both feet and were so itchy for ages until i came upon a medical store with a sleeping shop assistant who woke up and gave me special indian cream that cured me, no it wasnt instant cure but it was sweet heaven compared to what i was experienceing.. i mean 10 on each ankle in the space of a few hours, no fair!
so anjuna was quiet, im in palolem now. its beautiful here. but back to anjuna, first of all i decuided to stick around for the market, which itself was a huge dissappointment, i wanted to get loads of gifts but the prices were inflated for tourists and there wasnt anything special about it, lonely planet curse strikes again. i think that anything that has been in that book should be avoided by travellers! prices are always higher in real life and everyone has been there before so there is nothing to discover~ so there i was alone in anjuna hoping to meet people like everyone said they do... i clocked this pair of girls walking tiredly acrosse the beach on my second day and they spoke english!! so i kept an eye out for them and luckily they came back and i followed them (stalket i know) into my guesthouse, i started to talk to them and then directed them to the pkace that i was staying. they only had one room left so i let emily stay in with me, ultimate act of faith i know but it all worked out in the end. so that night i met jazz and emily who were travelling on their gap year, uh oh, teenagers, but they seemed pretty chilled, hung over and generally my kind of people and with them was evan jazz's holiday romance that she hooked up with in kerala on the houseboat, how romantic?! so that night we tried to find some form of a party but the place was dead and jazz and emily were not impressed with anjuna, so after dinner and some sheesha (flavoured tobacco) we all headed dejected back to the guesthouse and just went to bed. they decided to head north the next day so my new friends were gone and i was alone again :( but this did not last long, that evening i met bommer and marni this lovely couple who were at the end of their india trip and we spent a lovely evening chatting about everything and i got the distinct impression that they needed someone new to talk to.. couples travelling together must be tough! i tell you if the couple is on the rocks travelling in india will break them! so the next day i was back to square one but not really bothered about it.. i found a place that did movies an headed there for a quiet night, this is where i bumped into grant and shawn, 2 americans who were travelling together. grant is a dancer (and not gay i think) and shawn is indian american whose family are trying to set up a marriage for him shortly! so we hung out for the evening and i didnt think i would see them again even though i told them where i would be on the beach etc, we didnt exchange numbers, i dont know mine off by heart... so the next day i didnt see them although i kept an eye out but nothing. wasnt too bothered again, headed for another movie the night after and bumped into grant there, he said he had been on the beach looking for me but was not successful... yeah right, but i let him away with it cos he was damn cute!he invited me to dinner and then drove us both on his scooter to this super rosemantic place called sublime.. there were even freaking flower petals on the table and we were tucked away in a little nook under the stars, the restaurant was open air in the jungle! we talked freely and he seemed to good to be true, a little too nice american if you catch my drift, poor boy, i probably shocked him more times than i can count! and then the thunder and lightening started... how cool i thought but he was worried about getting struck or something so we made to leave and i was laughing as the rain came spitting, it was pityful i said, this is not rain.. i was to eat my words a little while later when he dropped me off at my bike, neither of us wanted the night to end so we chatted for a bit more and thenthe heavens opened.... i was wearing contacts so i had to pause under a tree and we talked some more, even though i was in a white tee his eys didnt dfirt once, fair play to him... or was he gay.. but no second "date" was organised or anything but he did say he would see me on the beach, but this was not to be and i havent see him since... sob sob... nah it was a perfect night of fantasy.. although the fantasy would have ended a little more dramatically than me saying... i bet you'll not make it to the beach tomo.. have a nice life!!
so that was that... then it was market day!!! jazz and emily contacted me to say they were day tripping down and we met on the beach and meandered about the market. as i said above it was not that impressive! but afterwards we had dinner and then it occured tome... hey guys when is your bus.. they said 8.30 ,... it was already 9pm! so they were staying at mine then! thus ensued a lot of drinking, dancing to our own beat, jumping over the bonfire on the beach and talking about men waaaay too much. so we made it back to the guest house to dump our stuff and drunkenly the 3 of us jumped on to my moped and weaved our way to the club.. we danced the night away for about 3 hours to crappy musice but with an entry of about 1.50 euros and all drinks were free what could we do.. about 3 am i was done and rounded up the girls to start the way home, it wasnt far infact we could have walked but i had the bike and on we jumped. jazz and i came to teh same conclusion at this point... that driving topless would be better so off we bounced naked from the waist up... unfortunately people were still awake and im surprise dwe didnt get done for indiecent exposure... best bit of that night.. jazz asking me... em becks.. should i "cup you" when we saw people on the road!!
the adventures of jazz and emily continue, they came back to anjuna once more to pick me up to head to palolem but first we had to find this rave... so the night started with me deciding not to drink and scoot and off we went to 9 bar in vagator.. this little rave scene was random as hell as it ended at 10pm.. on the dot i might add. bumped into aisling from sharjah! random... the world is tiny! then we started the quest to westend where the party wass. first to the bank link, i left the bike in jazz's hands and off i trotted when i got back she was traumatised cos some indian had arrive dnad kissed her shoulder etc, whilst she was telilng me this she dropped the bike on her leg and the exhaust burned her proper! she decied to soilder on... we finally made it to the rave about an hour later, we got lost many time etc but were pround that we made it. but it was such a let down. i have been to better ones in dublin! the music sucked and the indians kept getting too close, so about 2 hours in we were done and headed home, only to get stopped by the cops... uh oh... there were 3 of us on the bike (not allowed ) none had licenses (uh oh) so they fined us 1100 rupees... but eveything in india is negoitable so after some wide eyes and useing our feminine ways we paid him 500 rupees and were off again! it was some night...
the next day we were off to palolem, it is paradise here but the adventure continus... what about our room that smells like sewage? or the fact that our one and only night out so far resulted in my flip flops getting nicked adn jazz loosing her passport and traveller cheques and all her money?! this place is alot more busy than anjuna but not at the same time.. its absolutely beautiful and i think im goin to stay here until i leave for hom on the 19th ... (7days!)
so peeps expect more random stories soon, hanging out with jazz and emily has mad life a little more dangerous! they are leaving on tuesday though, but if jazz cant get her hands on some doc about the passport she might not be allowed home, oh yeah and she is only reporting it now, it happened about a 4 days ago! i was more mad about my shoes than she was bothered about her passport.. damn hippys i tells ya!
much love xxx
so anjuna was quiet, im in palolem now. its beautiful here. but back to anjuna, first of all i decuided to stick around for the market, which itself was a huge dissappointment, i wanted to get loads of gifts but the prices were inflated for tourists and there wasnt anything special about it, lonely planet curse strikes again. i think that anything that has been in that book should be avoided by travellers! prices are always higher in real life and everyone has been there before so there is nothing to discover~ so there i was alone in anjuna hoping to meet people like everyone said they do... i clocked this pair of girls walking tiredly acrosse the beach on my second day and they spoke english!! so i kept an eye out for them and luckily they came back and i followed them (stalket i know) into my guesthouse, i started to talk to them and then directed them to the pkace that i was staying. they only had one room left so i let emily stay in with me, ultimate act of faith i know but it all worked out in the end. so that night i met jazz and emily who were travelling on their gap year, uh oh, teenagers, but they seemed pretty chilled, hung over and generally my kind of people and with them was evan jazz's holiday romance that she hooked up with in kerala on the houseboat, how romantic?! so that night we tried to find some form of a party but the place was dead and jazz and emily were not impressed with anjuna, so after dinner and some sheesha (flavoured tobacco) we all headed dejected back to the guesthouse and just went to bed. they decided to head north the next day so my new friends were gone and i was alone again :( but this did not last long, that evening i met bommer and marni this lovely couple who were at the end of their india trip and we spent a lovely evening chatting about everything and i got the distinct impression that they needed someone new to talk to.. couples travelling together must be tough! i tell you if the couple is on the rocks travelling in india will break them! so the next day i was back to square one but not really bothered about it.. i found a place that did movies an headed there for a quiet night, this is where i bumped into grant and shawn, 2 americans who were travelling together. grant is a dancer (and not gay i think) and shawn is indian american whose family are trying to set up a marriage for him shortly! so we hung out for the evening and i didnt think i would see them again even though i told them where i would be on the beach etc, we didnt exchange numbers, i dont know mine off by heart... so the next day i didnt see them although i kept an eye out but nothing. wasnt too bothered again, headed for another movie the night after and bumped into grant there, he said he had been on the beach looking for me but was not successful... yeah right, but i let him away with it cos he was damn cute!he invited me to dinner and then drove us both on his scooter to this super rosemantic place called sublime.. there were even freaking flower petals on the table and we were tucked away in a little nook under the stars, the restaurant was open air in the jungle! we talked freely and he seemed to good to be true, a little too nice american if you catch my drift, poor boy, i probably shocked him more times than i can count! and then the thunder and lightening started... how cool i thought but he was worried about getting struck or something so we made to leave and i was laughing as the rain came spitting, it was pityful i said, this is not rain.. i was to eat my words a little while later when he dropped me off at my bike, neither of us wanted the night to end so we chatted for a bit more and thenthe heavens opened.... i was wearing contacts so i had to pause under a tree and we talked some more, even though i was in a white tee his eys didnt dfirt once, fair play to him... or was he gay.. but no second "date" was organised or anything but he did say he would see me on the beach, but this was not to be and i havent see him since... sob sob... nah it was a perfect night of fantasy.. although the fantasy would have ended a little more dramatically than me saying... i bet you'll not make it to the beach tomo.. have a nice life!!
so that was that... then it was market day!!! jazz and emily contacted me to say they were day tripping down and we met on the beach and meandered about the market. as i said above it was not that impressive! but afterwards we had dinner and then it occured tome... hey guys when is your bus.. they said 8.30 ,... it was already 9pm! so they were staying at mine then! thus ensued a lot of drinking, dancing to our own beat, jumping over the bonfire on the beach and talking about men waaaay too much. so we made it back to the guest house to dump our stuff and drunkenly the 3 of us jumped on to my moped and weaved our way to the club.. we danced the night away for about 3 hours to crappy musice but with an entry of about 1.50 euros and all drinks were free what could we do.. about 3 am i was done and rounded up the girls to start the way home, it wasnt far infact we could have walked but i had the bike and on we jumped. jazz and i came to teh same conclusion at this point... that driving topless would be better so off we bounced naked from the waist up... unfortunately people were still awake and im surprise dwe didnt get done for indiecent exposure... best bit of that night.. jazz asking me... em becks.. should i "cup you" when we saw people on the road!!
the adventures of jazz and emily continue, they came back to anjuna once more to pick me up to head to palolem but first we had to find this rave... so the night started with me deciding not to drink and scoot and off we went to 9 bar in vagator.. this little rave scene was random as hell as it ended at 10pm.. on the dot i might add. bumped into aisling from sharjah! random... the world is tiny! then we started the quest to westend where the party wass. first to the bank link, i left the bike in jazz's hands and off i trotted when i got back she was traumatised cos some indian had arrive dnad kissed her shoulder etc, whilst she was telilng me this she dropped the bike on her leg and the exhaust burned her proper! she decied to soilder on... we finally made it to the rave about an hour later, we got lost many time etc but were pround that we made it. but it was such a let down. i have been to better ones in dublin! the music sucked and the indians kept getting too close, so about 2 hours in we were done and headed home, only to get stopped by the cops... uh oh... there were 3 of us on the bike (not allowed ) none had licenses (uh oh) so they fined us 1100 rupees... but eveything in india is negoitable so after some wide eyes and useing our feminine ways we paid him 500 rupees and were off again! it was some night...
the next day we were off to palolem, it is paradise here but the adventure continus... what about our room that smells like sewage? or the fact that our one and only night out so far resulted in my flip flops getting nicked adn jazz loosing her passport and traveller cheques and all her money?! this place is alot more busy than anjuna but not at the same time.. its absolutely beautiful and i think im goin to stay here until i leave for hom on the 19th ... (7days!)
so peeps expect more random stories soon, hanging out with jazz and emily has mad life a little more dangerous! they are leaving on tuesday though, but if jazz cant get her hands on some doc about the passport she might not be allowed home, oh yeah and she is only reporting it now, it happened about a 4 days ago! i was more mad about my shoes than she was bothered about her passport.. damn hippys i tells ya!
much love xxx
Saturday, 29 November 2008
Mumbai under siege...
just realised that this blog will come first, how and ever.. i was woken on the night of the 26th by my father at 3am worried that we were in mumbai in colaba. i as confused as we hadnt looked at the news all evening so were none the wiser about the terror attacks going on. as im sure everyone will have seen the news by now i neednt get into it but my parents wanted me home asap! wally and i were really worried about the domestic airport as there were some reports that it had been hit.. but these were quashed by the airport staff and we were safely boarding our flight some hour later than scheduled. the kingfisher staff were really nice and tried to keep everyone calm. when we arrived in mumbai we could see that there was still a major ooperatoin underway so we had to decided where to stay out of the danger. we chose near the airport and were approached by an english guy in the airport asking if he could hang with us as he was supposed to go to colaba to see a friend but obviously couldnt now. his name is Rob and was an actor so himself and wally had a lot in common, it was wierd actually how alike they are! we headed to some hotel that the airport reservaton people made us see, it was gross so we headed to the place we wanted which was lovely, a little expensive but worth it but then the ladei or should i say bitch at reception said that they were,t taking in walk ins because of the problems so we were stumped again. but she pointed usin the direction of a nearby hotel and we ended up staying there, it was a little kitchy but wa s what we needed. after heading out on a booze expedition we holed up in the hotel for the night intermiddely watching the news and commenting on how shit the indian news was.i was under extreme pressure byt the parents and family to come home and didnt know what to do, eventually in the morning i decided to stick with my original plan and head to goa.. where i am now. its really quiet here, exactly what i needed after the stress of being in the danger zone! in in anjuna at the mo where a massive market happens every wed, im going to stay here til then i think, its chlled but i havent met any other travellers yet, althought the mossies have been great and have greeted me with open mouths, the bastards!
Friday, 28 November 2008
Jodhpur :( Udaipur :)
i suppose everyone would like to hear about the excitment in Mumbai but first i want to blog about Jodphur and Udaipur. so wally an i took the train late in the night from jaisalmer into Jodhpur and arrive super early, at 5.20am!so we jumped into an over priced rickshaw too exhausted to care and he brought us close to our guesthouse that lonel planet had recommended. it was called the cosy guesthouse, it was anything but. first off it was up this tiny winding street that was so uphill im surprised i made it, wally got the driver to carry her bags (damn) but he r one was hugely heavy so i ddint mind. when we arrived we woke the slumbering people in the lobby area of the haveli and were shown a rom that was literally a small double bed with no where to walk around it, a tiny cabinet was in the wall and the walls were draped in fabric making the room seem smaller, oh and the sound of some bloke vomiting was a plus... then he told us that this room was actually 50 rupees more expensive that we were intially told.we though we would argue this out later but it was a stand off (then we conceeded cos it was only 6 euros for the room.. 3 each.. nothing!) so we passed out for a while and when we woke we headed to the roof top restaurant for some food.. jeeez was the service a shambles, orders were taken on napkins, or not at all and the food was barely passable, oh and as usual ice cold! this was not the cosy guesthouse experice that we were looking for, but the price was really good so we thought that we would spend the day sight seein and not come back till we were good and tired and then the room size would be of no importance. so we headed to the tourist info centre, that ofcourse was closed being a sunday :( we got a rickshaw driver to bring around for the day. whilst we were headin around we refused to look at his commission shops, spending our time at the sights instead. then in the evening we conceeded but bought nothing and made him drop us at the massive market in the old town. it was mental and brightened our spirits about the town, so much so that we headed out of the way to dinner to On the Rocks.. cool place, great food.. and we put away a bottle of wine between us! added bonus of the night was the enormous wedding gong on next door, we heard wails of a kid goat and tried not to think why.... then we had quite the time trying to get someone to bring us home.. but then he won me over when he let me driver the auto rickshaw for part of the way!!! remember that i was a little pissed... so he let me steer but took most of the control himse;f!the next day we headed to get a bus to udaipur deciding not to spend much time in jodhpu, it didnt have a great vibe, then the drama with the bus tickets started, first there was a bus at 2pm but when we paid it was at 1pm and already it was 12.2 , then the bus didnt leave from the ticket office but another ticket office and then not from there but a rickshaw brought us to it!! and then the rude dude form the bus tried to get us to put our bags in the back fo the bus! yeah right .. easier to stael, so wwe took them on board and started the worst bus journey of my life. i have a video of it... at some points we leaped 2 feet off the chair! it took 7 hours, mainly cos of the mountains and the fact that we kept stopping in every tiny town to cram more people in! but finally we were there in udaipur, some rickshaw overcharged us to get to our hotel and we arrived expecting the worst....
.. and were pleasantly surprised! our room was delicious, ensuite, flatscreen tv, 2 single 4 poster beds, the place had a pool and restaurant. oh we were delighted! so we decided to stay in udaipur for the 3 days and not do much! the bond movie octopussy was shot in the palace on the lake here and we were intending to go and eat there but soon realised that we had neither the money or the proper attire to fit in :( no worries we ate on the banks of the filthy lake in a lovely restaurant called ambrai and watched the sun set over the lake and the city came alive with european lighting! now the restaurant was prob lovely cos of the wine.... but how and ever it was a sucessful evening. the next day after lounging by the pool we headed to get pampered...oh so we thought. we went to the 5 star hilton hotel for some waxing, threading, manicures etc... they butchered my hands, and missed spots on my legs so in certain lights i look right wierd! wally had the same unimpressive experience, but she took the time to teach the waxist some new tricks.. oh yeah shouldve known we were in for something wierd when she spread the wax on my legs with a butter knife! but we didnt let it mar our day as we wandered slightly sticky from residue wax about the city. we had intended to go to mumbai on the 26th but thought that we would want more timein udaipur.. and im so happy we did!
.. and were pleasantly surprised! our room was delicious, ensuite, flatscreen tv, 2 single 4 poster beds, the place had a pool and restaurant. oh we were delighted! so we decided to stay in udaipur for the 3 days and not do much! the bond movie octopussy was shot in the palace on the lake here and we were intending to go and eat there but soon realised that we had neither the money or the proper attire to fit in :( no worries we ate on the banks of the filthy lake in a lovely restaurant called ambrai and watched the sun set over the lake and the city came alive with european lighting! now the restaurant was prob lovely cos of the wine.... but how and ever it was a sucessful evening. the next day after lounging by the pool we headed to get pampered...oh so we thought. we went to the 5 star hilton hotel for some waxing, threading, manicures etc... they butchered my hands, and missed spots on my legs so in certain lights i look right wierd! wally had the same unimpressive experience, but she took the time to teach the waxist some new tricks.. oh yeah shouldve known we were in for something wierd when she spread the wax on my legs with a butter knife! but we didnt let it mar our day as we wandered slightly sticky from residue wax about the city. we had intended to go to mumbai on the 26th but thought that we would want more timein udaipur.. and im so happy we did!
Sunday, 23 November 2008
Thank god i packed my sports bra
i survived the 12 hour train journey to jaisalmer! i took the bottom bunk in case of vomit emergency, although i realised that i was putting myself at risk for some groping and disturbance throughout the night! thank you julia for telling the story of how she was woken by a finger nail scraping the back of her leg as she slet on the train it really helped mnake me feel entirely uncomfortable! we got on the train at midnight and found our bunks easy enough, they were much smaller than they looked in the other train and we on the side which we though was the best option (the jury is still out on that front!) so wally took the top and i the bottom and we promptly passed out !! thank god for small mercies, i didnt puke throughout the journey and slept quite well considering! although some dude dide poke his head into my bunk at some godforsaken hour to just check me out (although if i had reacted he prob would have gone with the escuse that he was lost ..yeah right!@) so we arrived in jaisalmer, were promptly attacked by a tout and for 10 rupees let him take us to his hotle which was grotty and then to our own hotel.. hotel swastika! the guy in our hotel was laid back to the point of indifference, i think the write up in the lonely planet has done him a booming business so he no longer tries! although he didnt take it too badly when we didnt take his camel safari option. on recommendation of stef and steve from the tiger safari we headed to thar safari, the poor guy ther was up to his eye balls in wedding prep (he was to be married in 2 days!) so i think that was the start of our interesting camel safari experience. we were due to head out the next morning at 8.30am so we had the afternoon to wander jaisalmer etc. i loved that place! sure everyone tried to sell you something but it was a welcome relief from the stress of the capital city.it is small cosy, and the locals do try to engage you and are very friendly.. but ... what they dont do is service! getting food in jaisalmer was an extremly tough thing to do, mainly we waited 40 minutes for simple meals to appear and when they did come they were ice cold! its no wonder people here are forever eating of the street stalls.. atleast the food arrives hot (if toxic and tummy destroying) but i think all round wally and i loved jaisalmer especially since its wedding season in india right now and the small town went mental for one weding we witnessed just as we were leaving, fireworks, thje groom terrified on an adorned horse, loud pumping music,dancing.. and this was jut the procession to the wedding area!.... but wait..what about the camel safari???
so the next morning we headed off with our driver (who spoke really little or no english) to a few sights before meeting up with our faithful steeds. we went through the cenotaphs (given me some idea sfor how i would like to be remembered..) and then on to the jain temple (ladies who are menstrating are not allowed in... but how can they tell...) then it was off to meet rocket and simon the 2 camels who took us across the scrub desert.. poor rocket was my man and true to form was shooting poop rockets at simon and wally for most of the journey! so we headed out and immediatley i realised that the little minutes i spent on a camel in dubai had NOT prepared me for this! it was the wierdest gait ever but just as i was getting into it we stopped to wate rthe camels and then headede into the shade of a nearby tree for lunch.. all prepared infront of us by our guie, chapati and curry (what i was to live on for the next few days!) and then about 3 hours later (they dont do things fast in the desert!) we headed off to the desert. at this point my arse was SORE and i was happy for the trotting to start and then we were at our destination an hour later... but where was this destination??? well our guide dumped us at his brothers wife's place... shack.. in the middle of the scrub desert whlst he headed to town for some "camel food" yeah right.. he left us there with his family who hadnt great english for 4 hours! well after sundown! there were 2 girls and this other woman with a baby adn all hese boys, not to mention the goats and the baby goats and the cows and other camels,... it was like the desert version of animal farm! we headed into the dunes for the sunset which was rosemantic (but with me and cuz not so much) we battle dung beatles and fell about thge place trying to take artistic shots.. mainly trying to whittle away the hours until we could head to bed! so we headed back in the hear dark to the family shack place where we were plyed with more chai (i hate the stuff now) and amusaed by the baby goats (the kids) and generally sat silently staring at the star studded sky getting morte and more annoyed that we were stranded. when he finally returned he ignored us for a while and then about 8.30 fed us (more of the same from lunch) and finally set about heading into another dune to prepare our beds for the night. we opted for 2 campbed things (the dung beatles are HIUGE so i didnt want to be on the sand) and he left us be. i would love to say we stayed up all night chatting and seeing shooting stars, i saw one and then passed out, was wonken a couple of times what with the freezen temperatures and everything! but then we awoke to the dawn breaking over the sand dune and soon we were off to the desert again and then for another drawn out lunch and finally home that afternoon... dont know if my ass will ever be the same! i did love rocket and poor wally got landed with the slowest of the bunch simon. i just feel that if the guy frm thar had warned us about the amount of time we were to spend with the family i dont know if we would have gone./.. that and it was just us, no one else, i wanted to meet some other travellers but it ws not to be.
that night we returned we made it to our train for jodhpur (where this blog is coming frm) that trin arrived in on time!! remarkable! and as for the story of jodhpur.. at the moment im heading for the bus to udaipur so i'll have to share another time..but let me say this.. im happy to be out of here!
xx
so the next morning we headed off with our driver (who spoke really little or no english) to a few sights before meeting up with our faithful steeds. we went through the cenotaphs (given me some idea sfor how i would like to be remembered..) and then on to the jain temple (ladies who are menstrating are not allowed in... but how can they tell...) then it was off to meet rocket and simon the 2 camels who took us across the scrub desert.. poor rocket was my man and true to form was shooting poop rockets at simon and wally for most of the journey! so we headed out and immediatley i realised that the little minutes i spent on a camel in dubai had NOT prepared me for this! it was the wierdest gait ever but just as i was getting into it we stopped to wate rthe camels and then headede into the shade of a nearby tree for lunch.. all prepared infront of us by our guie, chapati and curry (what i was to live on for the next few days!) and then about 3 hours later (they dont do things fast in the desert!) we headed off to the desert. at this point my arse was SORE and i was happy for the trotting to start and then we were at our destination an hour later... but where was this destination??? well our guide dumped us at his brothers wife's place... shack.. in the middle of the scrub desert whlst he headed to town for some "camel food" yeah right.. he left us there with his family who hadnt great english for 4 hours! well after sundown! there were 2 girls and this other woman with a baby adn all hese boys, not to mention the goats and the baby goats and the cows and other camels,... it was like the desert version of animal farm! we headed into the dunes for the sunset which was rosemantic (but with me and cuz not so much) we battle dung beatles and fell about thge place trying to take artistic shots.. mainly trying to whittle away the hours until we could head to bed! so we headed back in the hear dark to the family shack place where we were plyed with more chai (i hate the stuff now) and amusaed by the baby goats (the kids) and generally sat silently staring at the star studded sky getting morte and more annoyed that we were stranded. when he finally returned he ignored us for a while and then about 8.30 fed us (more of the same from lunch) and finally set about heading into another dune to prepare our beds for the night. we opted for 2 campbed things (the dung beatles are HIUGE so i didnt want to be on the sand) and he left us be. i would love to say we stayed up all night chatting and seeing shooting stars, i saw one and then passed out, was wonken a couple of times what with the freezen temperatures and everything! but then we awoke to the dawn breaking over the sand dune and soon we were off to the desert again and then for another drawn out lunch and finally home that afternoon... dont know if my ass will ever be the same! i did love rocket and poor wally got landed with the slowest of the bunch simon. i just feel that if the guy frm thar had warned us about the amount of time we were to spend with the family i dont know if we would have gone./.. that and it was just us, no one else, i wanted to meet some other travellers but it ws not to be.
that night we returned we made it to our train for jodhpur (where this blog is coming frm) that trin arrived in on time!! remarkable! and as for the story of jodhpur.. at the moment im heading for the bus to udaipur so i'll have to share another time..but let me say this.. im happy to be out of here!
xx
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